Late Night Art East Belfast - Platform Arts

From when they came on board as two of the five voluntary co-directors of Platform Arts recently, Ryan Allen and Tarah McGonigle had an idea to celebrate the burgeoning art scene in East Belfast by bringing a Late Night Art event to the area. Then when they saw the Bank of Ideas funding opportunity advertised on instagram, and after discussion possibilities with their board, they decided to go for it.

Ryan thought people would want to support the idea because it’s a project that gives opportunities for involvement to so many people and organisations, plus Ryan said the project probably benefited from wide knowledge of the well established Late Night Art scene, which happens on the first Thursday of every month in the city centre. But he was still surprised to have received enough support that the project was fully funded, so the Platform directors had to snap into action to put the event together.

“It was a lot of work, but people were very supportive and lots of arts organisations around us wanted to get involved, which made it feel easy.”

Several illustrators produced eye-catching posters for LNA East Belfast and it attracted a lot of attention on social media.The inaugural Late Night Art East Belfast was held on the 12th of September 2024, the week after the city centre event, and the 40 tickets available for the guided tour were snapped up super fast.

“We probably had 50 more people on top of that, at least,” said Ryan. “And everyone seemed to enjoy it. One mother and daughter from North Belfast came over east for the event, and they weren’t normally Late Night Art goers, so it’s good to see the arts reaching out beyond the usual audience.”

Late Night Art East Belfast included an collaborative exhibition in Platform Arts in Connswater Shopping centre that investigates proximity and boundaries of space. At Open Arts, also now based in Connswater, Beverly White treated the crowd to a Gamelan sound bath. Arts Care had a group exhibition, and a buffet of vegan and vegetarian pies from Hearty Growers and Pie in the Sky, two East Belfast producers. Fighting Words had creative writing drop-in workshops. Strand Cinema showed old footage of the Strand and had a DJ playing tunes in the main thoroughfare of Connswater shopping centre. Then the walking tour went down the Newtownards Road to view the Cotyledon exhibition in Boundary Taproom, and a further group exhibition in the immense, dramatic warehouse space of Creative Exchange. Most of the group ended up in Boundary for a few pints and conversations about art.

Though it was Ryan and Tarah’s first time organising something on this scale, the whole experience went very well, Ryan hopes that in future months Late Night Art East Belfast will continue to grow and more organisations will get involved.

Ryan said: “It showed me that anyone can come in and put together an event like that with very little planning time, and just a little funding. I hope other organisations will take the wheel with it now it’s started up, and make it their own, keep it going. I would love to have the community recognise it and come along, not just those already interested in arts, Late Night Art East Belfast has been a great example of people and organisations working together. It shows people want things to happen, and all that’s needed is a little bit of funding and community support.”

Platform Arts are also producing a brochure of all the creative spaces in East Belfast with a possible map inside, which will allow people to go on a self guided tour of some of the most interesting artistic places in the East, to be launched by the end of October 2024.