Titanic Exhibition at Union Station

The Rediscover Northern Ireland programme in Washington DC this summer offers an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the province and its future potential.

As part of this programme National Museums Northern Ireland has secured one of the most prestigious venues in the American capital to stage a Titanic exhibition which will promote Belfast and Northern Ireland as a centre for economic regeneration, tourism culture and creativity.

The exhibition, to be staged in partnership with others, will go on display in Union Station across a three week period running from late June to mid-July 2007. Across the period Union Stations will host 1.6 million visitors including many of the most influential government and business decision-makers in the United States.

Drawing primarily on the rich archives of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum the exhibition will employ the latest technology with large-scale photographs, moving images, audio archive and 3-D graphics. It will open with the US launch of a brand new Titanic website.

Using the Titanic theme to seize the attention of the media, visitors and the American political establishment, we will tell a century-long story of a city which 100 years ago was a world-centre of innovation to a city which today is already in a visible process of huge post-conflict transformation.

From unique newsreel footage of the Titanic in Belfast Lough in 1912 to the contemporary opportunities at Titanic Quarter, the city centre and across Northern Ireland the exhibition audience will discover new things about our past and a fresh sense of future opportunities.

Four key messages will underpin “Titanic at Union Station”. They are:

Using images and content from the National Museums’ archives and from partners we will lead the audience from the Titanic city of 100 years to the transforming city as it is today - and showcase contemporary iconic images from across Northern Ireland.

With the venue now secured we need to move swiftly to secure partners and funding behind the project.

While National Museums will take the lead on delivery of the exhibition we want to work with partners. The project will be delivered under the auspices of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival steering group led by DCAL.