A programme of events was run over the course of the A World of Stories exhibition (May-Agugust 2023), aiming to engage a wide range of audiences.

Launching the exhibition on 15 May 2023, the outgoing Mayor of the Causeway Coast and Glens, Cllr Ivor Wallace said:

This wonderful exhibition from our Museum Services is a timely reminder of just how diverse our community is. I’d like to thank everyone who was involved for sharing their stories with the project. Whether joyful or sad, everyone’s story is unique and worth telling.

Throughout June, the exhibition was visited by classes from four local schools, D.H. Christie, Garryduff, Hezlett and Portrush Primary Schools to take part in diversity and citizenship workshops. Each school had received visits from speakers from different cultural backgrounds earlier in the school year and finished off their programme with a visit to A World of Stories.

At the end of June it was wonderful to welcome Building Communities Resource Centre’s Connection Café to the exhibition which included talks by Michael Nakibinge, sharing the story of his journey from Uganda to Northern Ireland, and Sasha Petrova, using her skills and experience as a nutritionist in Ukraine to share helpful and practical informative about healthy food and lifestyle.

In July the exhibition welcomed a visit from the Swift Hearers, up from Belfast. The group enjoyed a workshop exploring global connections in the exhibition, and took in a visit to Mountsandel to learn about the island’s earliest people on their way home.

Many of the project participants came together again in July to help launch the booklet to compliment the exhibition. Launching the publication, the Mayor of the Causeway Coast and Glens, Councillor Steven Callaghan said:

Exhibitions and booklets like A World of Stories create a wonderful resource to showcase the diversity of our borough. It celebrates the many cultures which come together to make up our community and I’d encourage everyone to visit the exhibition and to pick up a copy of this wonderful booklet.

August saw saw a series of talks exploring the relationship between food and culture around the world. ‘A Taste of the World’ was kicked off by Bonny Cooper guiding the audience through the different regional approaches to food in China, various soya products, and the making of Jiao Zi (filled dumplings).

Turan Güneş explored the foods of eastern Turkey  and the different dishes that can be part of a meze, with samples including humus and cacık, baba ganoush, muhammara, ezme and stuffed vine leaves.

Showcasing the food culture of Southeast Asia, Thana Thammavongsa introduced the tastes of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos including beef salad, peanut noodles, and chicken skewers, as well as jasmine rice and dried and fresh herbs for the audience’s olfactory satisfaction.

Ending the Taste of the World talk series, Gosia O’Hagan and Klaudia Furlani presented the food culture in Poland with a banquet of samples including pierogi, cabbage and pork rolls, strawberry cake and freshly made apple and berry compot.

On the final day of the exhibition, three storytellers, Masako Carey, Liz Weir and Nandi Jola, shared stories from Japan, Ireland and South Africa in a special World of Storytelling event. The audience was treated to a lunch of Ukrainian food catered by a new business started by two of the exhibition’s Ukrainian participants, Viktoria and Anna Ivanova. The stories were gripping, the food was amazing; the craic was brilliant!

Following the closure of the A World of Stories exhibition, a celebration event was held at Stormont for all the participants of the Global Voices, Local Choices project, followed by and invitation to speak about the project at the 2023 Museums Association conference at Gateshead.

Click here to find out more about the exhibition

The project was made possible with the support of The Executive Office’s District Councils Good Relations Programme.