Help us to celebrate Northern Ireland’s built heritage through our exciting new project: the Heritage Arts Challenge!

Since COVID-19 we have all had the opportunity to re-engage with our surroundings and perhaps even discover local buildings or places that we didn’t know about. We want to celebrate these re-discoveries as a positive side to the pandemic, and are asking members of the public to create something which encapsulates their favourite historic building or place in a medium of their choice. This could be through an artwork, the written or spoken word, music or even a song. Your limit is your imagination! To get you started, we are running a series of online workshops.

The project is open to anyone 16 years or over, and welcomes submissions from all abilities, from professionals to those who may have never done anything like this before! Selected entrants will have the opportunity to work with specialist mentors who will help them to develop their work for display or performance at the Heritage Angel Awards 2021, taking place in Belfast City Centre on 23 November**. There will also be a number of prizes for the selected entries, which will be awarded by our panel of experts. 

The project is supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Heritage Angel Awards are lead funded by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation with additional support from Department for Communities and CITB in 2021.

If you have missed a workshop, and would like to catch up, you can view all the workshops here.

What are we looking for?

• We want your creation to represent a real building or place in Northern Ireland
• The building or place should be historic (over 30 years old)
• We want you to try and capture how the building or place makes you feel, or the stories behind it
• You can use whatever you want to make or present your work, however it must also be able to be displayed or heard in a digital format (this includes digital photograph(s) of an artwork, a video or a sound recording)
• We ask that if you are making a video, it should be no more than 3 minutes long
• You can see more guidance for submission here
• By submitting your work you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of submission, which can be seen at the bottom of this page.

How to take part

Taking part is simple:

• Read our submission requirements
• Create your submission
• Fill in the online form
• Submit!
• Entries now close at midnight on 10th October 2021

Ready to enter? Submit now!

What happens next?

• Following the closing date, our panel of experts will select a number of participants to work with to create a bespoke piece for display or performance at the Heritage Angel Awards.
• Ulster Architectural Heritage may also contact selected participants to ask if they would like their submitted work displayed or performed at the Heritage Angel Awards.
• The Heritage Angel Awards will take place in Belfast City Centre in November 2021, where selected pieces will be on display/ performed (government guidelines permitting)

Terms & Conditions

By submitting your work you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of submission:

• Entrants must be 16 or over at time of submission. 
• You agree to be contacted by UAH in relation to your submission, and your personal information will be treated in accordance with UAH’s privacy policy 
• You agree that your work can be shared through UAH’s social media channels, and may be used to promote the project across other media channels. UAH will retain the right to reproduce the works for publicity purposes 
• Work submitted must be your own, and you must have the rights to reproduce it 
• UAH will not reimburse or cover any costs associated with taking part in the project 
• UAH and are not liable for any damage occurring to works selected for public display, and participants agree to display their work at their own risk 
• Participants invited to attend the awards will be responsible for their own travel arrangements, and any costs this may incur. 
• Display or performance of selected works at the Heritage Angel Awards is subject to COVID-19 regulations.