Nerve Centre

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Nerve Centre 🎨 Creative media arts
📍 Hubs in Derry & Belfast
nervecentre.org

More than 120,000 people a year benefit from the Nerve Centre’s wide-ranging programme of events, cutting edge projects, creative learning centres, and state-of-the-art production facilities. A successful social economy enterprise, the Nerve Centre employs more than 50 staff at sites in Derry~Londonderry and Belfast.

15/10/2026

🤝 Bringing together emerging and established musicians from Leitrim and Derry~Londonderry 🎶🎸🎹

For this year's Good Relations Week, we're focusing on the theme of inclusion. 🌎🙌

One project we wanted to reflect on is the Songlines music project, which brought together over 20 artists from Derry~Londonderry and Leitrim to write and record music collaboratively, culminating in live performances at Stendhal Festival 🤘

🎬👉 Watch filmmaker Diana Cheung's full documentary about Songlines on our YouTube channel, and also read our Head of Music Marty McGill's latest blog on the story of Songlines by visiting Latest News (which also contains Diana's full documentary), link in bio 🔗

Leitrim County Council
The Glens Arts Centre


Community Relations Council

👂 Listening to the issues that young people feel are most important to them 🤔💬This year's Good Relations Week is all abo...
14/10/2026

👂 Listening to the issues that young people feel are most important to them 🤔💬

This year's Good Relations Week is all about highlighting the importance of inclusion, and so we are taking this week to reflect on some of the projects we delivered this year and how they brought different communities together. 🤝✨

Outpouring was a creative project from artist Joe Caslin and Nerve Centre, co-created with 120 young people from seven different schools across Belfast during a six-month cross-community engagement programme.

Through street art, spoken word, film and augmented reality, the young people involved were invited to explore issues of identity, hope, togetherness and what they need us to hear right now. 🎨✍️🎬

The project culminated in a major immersive installation in Riddel’s Warehouse, Belfast over five weeks starting in June this year.

👋 We welcomed members of the public to explore the large-scale artwork of Mr Riddel designed by Joe, the collection of visual and written artefacts created by the young people themselves, take part in a story exchange for visitors to tell their own stories, and gave them the opportunity to download and use an augmented reality app created by Hamilton Robson, which gave visitors an interactive experience of the space. 📱

Complementing the installation was an archive cinema space featuring content from
the Northern Ireland Now project coordinated by Vish Films NI in partnership with Northern Ireland Screen. 📺🎞️

🎬 The Northern Ireland Now project also wrapped up this year, which was a cultural project seeking to address underrepresentation in the Digital Film Archive, where we worked with a range of wonderful community groups across Northern Ireland.

As part of the Outpouring project, we also ran a series of free events, and were delighted to part in Late Night Art Belfast 🌙🖼️

👉 Learn more about Outpouring: https://bit.ly/4ymMjP3
👉 Learn more about Northern Ireland Now: https://bit.ly/4y9fK6V

Irish Foreign Ministry
Belfast Stories
Hearth Historic Buildings Trust
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
BFI


Community Relations Council

13/10/2026

👀 Be part of something unlike anything we've hosted before...

🏃‍♀️🛜 Escape the Internet is a completely new kind of interactive experience led by Lucas Rizzotto.

📺 Watch an animated adventure unfold on the big screen in this part live comedy, part cinema, part multiplayer game 🎮👾

📱 Use your phone to be part of the action, make choices, play games and compete alongside everyone else in the room.

🎮 No gaming experience needed
📱 Your phone is your controller
🤣 Expect laughs and chaos
👥 Come with friends or come alone

🎨 Created by award-winning director and creative technologist Lucas Rizzotto, with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch as Executive Producer.

Are you ready to Escape the Internet?

✅ Ages 18+

🗓️ Wednesday 4 November
⏰ Doors 6pm | 7pm start
📍 Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry

👉 Learn more and book now: https://bit.ly/4rR4N8k

Belfast XR Festival | Immersive Arts UK | What's on Derry Strabane

What happens when young people are given the opportunity to shape their own creative futures? 🤔 💡 As continues, we're ...
13/10/2026

What happens when young people are given the opportunity to shape their own creative futures? 🤔 💡

As continues, we're shining a spotlight on Kinship, a new youth-led project at Nerve Centre that's bringing young people together through creativity, collaboration and community.

Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Kinship is giving young people aged 16–25 a voice in shaping new activities, building connections and influencing the future of our programmes.

From creative workshops and community gaming nights to opportunities for young people to become facilitators and decision-makers, the project is already putting their ideas into action.

Our Kinship Project Coordinator, Mollie, shares an update on the project so far and what's coming next.

👉 Read the full blog: https://bit.ly/4B3dQrb

Community Relations Council

12/10/2026

🔍 Exploring the collections of two of Northern Ireland’s leading cultural figures through creative interventions ✍️📖

✨ With this year’s Good Relations Week theme focusing on the importance of inclusion, we wanted to reflect on some of the recent projects we have delivered which have connected different communities together.

The Now We’re Talking project celebrates this through highlighting how communities across Northern Ireland can connect with the archives, explore their cultural roots, and discover how folk traditions keep shaping our shared identity today. 🤝

Now We’re Talking was an archive and engagement programme we delivered in partnership with PRONI that catalogued and widened access to the papers of author and broadcaster, Sam Hanna Bell, and folklorist, writer and broadcaster Michael J. Murphy. 📚

Together, we delivered a series of creative workshops in different communities across Northern Ireland, from creating a virtual reality film with Dromintee Primary School and hosting a writer’s retreat weekend in South Armagh, to producing podcasts with participants in Belfast and engaging young people from Rathlin Island with the archives. 🎨✍️🎬

Now We're Talking is supported by the Archives Revealed grant programme, The National Folklore Collection, Cuimhneamh, Northern Ireland Screen and BBC NI, and is a funding partnership between The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives, UK.

👉 Watch the full video and learn more about Now We're Talking: https://nervecentre.org/culture/now-were-talking



duchas.ie
Cuimhneamh
Northern Ireland Screen
BBC Northern Ireland
The National Archives
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
The Pilgrim Trust
Wolfson Foundation

Community Relations Council

09/10/2026

🎬 Life on Rathlin Island, almost 70 years apart.

Inspired by a 1957 BBC Northern Ireland film made by Sam Hanna Bell, we've been working with the children of St Mary's Primary School on Rathlin Island to capture what life is like in this unique community today.

Bringing together archive footage and contemporary views, the resulting short film offers a fascinating glimpse into island life, past and present.

We had hoped to premiere the film with the local community on Rathlin this evening, but unfortunately the weather had other plans! 🌊

Instead, to mark the occasion, we're excited to share the film online for one week only, celebrating the creativity of the children and the wider island community.

🎥 Watch the film on YouTube: https://bit.ly/4ybjMeS

The film marks the final community engagement programme of Now We're Talking, a project supported by Archives Revealed, an initiative from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.

Delivered in partnership with the PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and supported by the Archives Revealed grant programme, Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann/ The National Folklore Collection, Cuimhneamh, Northern Ireland Screen and BBC NI.



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09/10/2026

📢 Schools! Where is everyone? 🤷‍♀️

⏰ There is only one month left to enter our Future Focus Schools Challenge. 💥

The Matrix NI Future Focus Schools Challenge is calling all Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils to get creative and develop an innovative app, product, service or invention to help solve it. 💡

🤝 Teams of young innovators will use their creativity, problem-solving and teamwork skills as they develop and pitch their ideas for the future. 🤔💭

🏆 Prizes for winners and runners-up
🎟️ Free to enter
🗓️ Entries close Friday 6 November

Shortlisted teams will be invited to a special showcase and awards event at Nerve Centre on Thursday 26 November.

👉 Learn more and enter now: https://bit.ly/4ygyXnF

Delivered in partnership with Matrix NI and NI Science Festival

🚨 Low ticket warning! 🚨🎤 The hilarious Ro Boyle Comedy brings his latest stand-up special 'Showed Up' to this Saturday...
08/10/2026

🚨 Low ticket warning! 🚨

🎤 The hilarious Ro Boyle Comedy brings his latest stand-up special 'Showed Up' to this Saturday 10 October.

Expect brutally honest stories, quick-fire Irish humour, and a special appearance from online sensation Big Billy — Ireland’s Only Catholic Orangeman! 👀

⭐ Ro Boyle: Showed Up
🗓️ Saturday 10 October
⏰ Doors 7pm, Show 8pm
📍 Nerve Centre, Derry

👉 Book tickets (few remaining): https://nervecentre.org/whats-on/ro-boyle-showed-up

07/10/2026

⚡ We've just had an upgrade! 💪😎

🙌 Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund Northern Ireland and the addition of our new LED lighting system, we are now able to use less energy while still bringing fully immersive audio-visual experiences to our customers 🤩🎶

👉 Visit Music & Comedy link in bio to browse and book for all upcoming events.

Did you ever just want to Escape the Internet? 🤔 👀Part live comedy. Part cinema. Part multiplayer game. Escape the Inter...
07/10/2026

Did you ever just want to Escape the Internet? 🤔 👀

Part live comedy. Part cinema. Part multiplayer game. Escape the Internet is a completely new kind of interactive experience coming to Nerve Centre.

Led by Lucas Rizzotto, you'll watch an animated adventure unfold on the big screen, then use your phone to jump into the action, make choices, play games and compete alongside everyone else in the room.

🎮 No gaming experience needed
📱 Your phone is your controller
😂 Expect laughs, chaos and some very questionable decisions
👥 Come with friends or come alone

Created by award-winning director and creative technologist Lucas Rizzotto, with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch as Executive Producer.

You'll never experience a night quite like this!

📅 Wednesday 4 November, 7pm
📍 Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry
🎟️ More info: https://bit.ly/4rR4N8k

Belfast XR Festival Immersive Arts UK What's on Derry Strabane

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Derry

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

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