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People with learning disabilities across Northern Ireland are being given the chance to dance, socialise and gain confidence, thanks to a lottery windfall from Culture for All. 

The Black Box Trust received £10,000 to bring its Black Moon disco for people with learning disabilities on tour. The project is currently run from the Black Box in Belfast but now people across Northern Ireland will get the chance to attend an event in their area. The first date of the tour is Main Street in Omagh on Tuesday December 10. The organisation plans to visit Lisburn, Bangor, Portadown, Draperstown and Derry/L'derry. Many of the activities will be decided by members but may include drama and speed dating.

Culture for All is a small grants programme which offered grants of up to £10,000 to communities across Northern Ireland wanting to play a part in the UK City of Culture celebrations in 2013. Community organisations could apply for funding up until the end of August to run arts and culture projects and activities linking in with the historic event, encouraging talent and improving the lives of people in communities.

Sarah Jones, venue manager at the Black Box, said: “Anybody can come down to Black Moon and have a dance – you don’t have to have a learning disability. It’s about providing a safe space for people to have a normal night out.

“Mark Patty who is one of our DJs has a learning disability. Mark has been with us for over a year now and he’s gone from barely being able to get up on the stage to Dj-ing, singing and doing call-outs for people on the microphone. His confidence has gone through the roof.

“I told him we were going on tour and he has had his bag packed for about three weeks now, ready to go.”

Sarah said Black Moon provided much-needed opportunities for people with learning disabilities to socialise and forge new friendships. “There is less and less provision for people, especially those who are coming out of school and aren’t able to get jobs. Jobs are very scarce for anybody and companies maybe aren’t able to offer the same support to somebody who has a learning disability to go to work, so a lot of them are being left to sit in the house, which is very isolating.                                                                                                                            

“The idea is that we’ll have satellite Black Moons set up across the country after this so there will be local provision for everybody.”

Mark Patty aka DJ Twister, 23, from Belfast, said: “If it wasn’t for Black Moon I’d be sitting in the house bored to be honest with you. It’s just changed my life basically.”

Greenlight Gateway in Ballycastle was also awarded £10,000 for the Hidden Text-Tiles Arts project, which celebrates the town’s shirt-making heritage. Adults with learning disabilities who currently recycle textiles in its social enterprise will produce two unique tile mosaics designed around the theme of the Shirt Factory, with one remaining in Ballycastle and the other to be presented to the Shirt Factory Project in the City of Culture. The group will link up with their peers from the Derry/Londonderry charity Destined for a social event and visit to the Shirt Factory Project.

The group are also exploring new ways of working with textiles through techniques including batik, screen printing, upcycling and costume making.

“Some of the adults we have here would have very little experience of being involved in art or creative work, and it just opens up new possibilities for them,” Frank Nealis, Greenlight Gateway development manager, said.

“You can see their delight and enjoyment when they’re exploring the mosaics and the textiles. When they see that they’re doing something creative and bringing a bit of imagination to it, it makes the ordinary stuff a bit more extraordinary.

“The adults who are involved in the project are learning new skills and growing in confidence.”

The Black Box Trust and Greenlight Gateway are among 21 groups across Northern Ireland awarded grants totalling £160,917 from Big Lottery Fund and Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Culture for All programme.

A full list of grants is available here

Joanne McDowell, Big Lottery Fund NI Director, said: “The Big Lottery Fund and Arts Council of Northern Ireland are delighted to announce these grants from this programme which is giving communities across Northern Ireland the chance to be a part of one of the world’s most significant cultural events in 2013.

“We are delighted with the range of arts and culture projects from across Northern Ireland that we have been able to support which link to the City of Culture celebrations and benefit their local community.”

This programme closed to applications on 30 August 2013. For more details on this programme call the Outreach team on 028 9055 1455, or e-mail enquiries.ni@biglotteryfund.org.uk

For further information contact
Lucy Gollogly, Press Office Big Lottery Fund: 028 9055 1432
Out of hours: 07740 284 404

Notes to editors

The Culture for All programme aims to support communities across Northern Ireland that want to play a part in the UK City of Culture celebrations in 2013.
The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland. It is the main support for artists and art organisations throughout the region, offering a broad range of funding opportunities through its Treasury and National Lottery funds.