The Braid hosts cream of curators for seminar on diversity challenge

The event, which was co-sponsored by the Northern Ireland Museums Council, featured a number of special guests, including Dr Michael Ryan (Director, Chester Beatty Library), William Blair (Head of Human History, National Museums Northern Ireland), Chris Bailey (Director, Northern Ireland Museum Council) and Dr Elizabeth Crooke, (Senior Lecturer Museum and Heritage Studies, School of English, History and Politics, University of Ulster).

The day’s programme included talks by Dr Michael Ryan, William Blair and Jayne Clarke, Curator of the Mid-Antrim Museum at The Braid, as well as workshop sessions on the theme, Diversity in Practice - policy, collections and programmes led by Chris Bailey, Dr Elizabeth Crooke and Dominique Bouchard, Access Officer for the Mid-Antrim Museums Service.

There was also a tour of the Mid-Antrim Museum’s Divine Inspiration exhibition.

The seminar was the culmination of a fruitful collaboration between Mid-Antrim Museum and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, which aimed to highlight the rich cultural heritage of Ballymena in the context of some of the diverse faiths which comprise the wider Ballymena community.

The exhibition featured exceptional, beautiful and rare manuscripts and other faith-related objects from a diverse range of world faiths including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism on loan by kind permission of The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library.

It also featured an installation by local photographer James Hughes and other highlights include a papyrus fragment of a Bible from 250 AD, a 14th century Qur’an, and a handwritten Bible from the 1859 revival.

The Mid-Antrim Museum exhibition: Divine Inspiration: Remarkable books, prints & manuscripts reflecting faith is in its final week and closed on Saturday, February 13.

For more information, please visit www.thebraid.com