Visionary revamp

When Lloyd Grossman launched the Vision Statement of the Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland recently, for once the term lived up to its name. MAGNI's Vision Statement may be couched largely in the aspirational language characteristic of the genre, but it also maps out concrete plans for the ambitious expansion and radical re-organisation of Northern Ireland's public museums and galleries.

The biggest surprise is the clear commitment to establishing the new art gallery that everyone has long agreed Belfast should have. Among other things, this gallery, to be called the Museum of the Creative Arts, will serve the important function of freeing up the log jam at the Ulster Museum, where the art collections are currently housed. The problem is that the museum cannot adequately cope with the quantity and variety of its collections and the task of displaying them. It also lacks a suitable space to accommodate temporary, visiting exhibitions. In terms of its own art collection, it is strong on late 19th- and 20th-century Irish, and particularly Northern Irish artists, with veritable treasure troves of Laverys and Scotts, for example.

MAGNI comprises the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, the Ulster American Folk Park and the Armagh Museum. It was established in 1998 and Michael Houlihan, who had previously worked at the Imperial War Museum and the Horniman Museum in London, was appointed as its chief executive. He sees the Museum of Creative Arts as a central plank in his long-term strategy for the institutions in his care, not least because it relieves the pressure on space in the current building and opens the way to further development.

Houlihan intends to move on it sooner rather than later and suggests that there is no reason why the project couldn't be up and running in five or six years - certainly by 2008, when Belfast is aiming to be European cultural capital. "We're going to be looking at the options for the new museum over the coming year. Broadly speaking, there are three options. One, there is the possibility of building an extension to the Ulster Museum. Two, finding an existing building that could be adapted, and three, a completely new building at some other city-centre site."

Any of these is theoretically possible, but it seems fair to say that the third option generates most excitement and enthusiasm among those associated with the Ulster Museum. Houlihan finds it particularly attractive: "It means that we would have a chance to create an outstanding building. It should be an architectural landmark, so that when people see it they immediately identify it with Belfast". He cites the Guggenheim in Bilbao. "The only drawback there is that I get the impression people know the building without having a clue as to what's actually inside it. I would like people to identity with the contents of the building as much as with the building."

That is no idle platitude. Houlihan is singularly committed to broadening and involving the museum audience, particularly the younger audience. When he says "museums are for people and art is not just for an elite group," it is clear that he really means it. He has no interest in creating "a museum for toffs". Hence the title Museum of the Creative Arts. "It will incorporate not only the fine arts, but also the applied arts, design, industrial design, photography and perhaps some ethnographic elements."

For someone outlining such sweeping plans, he is remarkably confident - but then he is an exceptionally determined individual. For example, the fine art displays in the Ulster Museum had languished in gloomy, sepulchral surroundings, for years. When Houlihan took over, one of his first initiatives was to dramatically revamp the drab gallery spaces. They are now bright and airy, with pale-wood floors in place of dark-brown carpet.

The MAGNI statement indicates that a fund-raising strategy is to follow. Does he believe the requisite funding will be found? He acknowledges the plans outlined are extremely ambitious. "The statement lays out the plan in intellectual terms, and of course we have to deal with the practicalities." But he believes the funding is there. "There is a feeling that the time is right in the current climate of economic regeneration in Belfast. And the cultural element is at the heart of that regenerative process. We see ourselves as key players in this."

The creation of Museum of the Creative Arts enables the succeeding changes which go broadly like this: the Ulster Museum building will become an exclusively historical museum, devoted to an ambitious and potentially controversial project, The Making of Ireland, which will, Houlihan says, "tell the story of Ireland from prehistory right up to the present day," tackling such issues as cultural identity and the Troubles.

The Museum's considerable natural history holdings will also move to a new home, an environmentally friendly space, Habitus, to be created at the 180-acre Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra Manor in Holywood. The existing Ulster American Folk Park will be expanded to become a National Museum of Emigration, chronicling the Irish diaspora. There are still further elaborations but, to a large extent, the Museum of the Creative Arts is the key to whole programme.

These developments, which have wide implications for the cultural sector in Northern Ireland, are projected to unfold within the next 10 to 15 years. Their future will hinge on political developments in the North, however. MAGNI's chairman Margaret Elliott called for the return of a "locally elected Minister" at the launch of Vision Statement. The fact that Minister Michael Mc Gimpsey is on his way back means the vision has more chance of becoming reality.