Rosie, Creative Programmer for National Museums NI, speaks to us about the importance of reconnecting with skills and stories from our past, and how the Digital Film Archive’s content can help NMNI’s programming to do that.

The Picture House at the Ulster Folk Museum is one of our most special exhibit buildings. The building was originally constructed in Gilford, County Down as a hay store in the 1850s. It was repurposed by the proprietor, Mr George H. Pentland, as a cinema in 1909 to provide entertainment for the growing number of linen mill workers in the town. It ceased operation in the early 1930s and was moved to the museum and reinstated as a cinema in the 1990s. 

The museum is undergoing a programme of transformation through the Reawakening Project where we are seeking ways to reconnect with skills and stories from our past. As part of this project, we’ve been finding ways to re-energise and animate the museum. 

Currently, the Picture House is one of the only spaces where we can regularly change content, so we’ve been working with the Digital Film Archive to have a regular programme of archive screenings in the space. Seasonal reels of archive have complimented and enhanced our events programming – from beautiful scenes of Harvests past to St Patrick’s Day traditions. We’ve also commissioned archive films with live soundtracks (echoing the live musical accompaniment that audiences would have seen in the early 20^th Century) through projects such as Autumn Equinox . 

For me, one of the standout pieces of programming was screening Film/Maker as part of Traditional Skills Day in 2025. Commissioned by the DFA and produced by TACA Productions, five craft-makers were invited to produce new work in response to heritage footage. Shown on a split screen of a contemporary maker working along-side their archival counterpart, these films encapsulate what the museum is about; the past and contemporary sitting alongside each other in a symbiotic relationship. The heritage skills depicted in the films such as weaving, woodwork and basketry are all things visitors can see in the museum but beyond that, they are living traditions still practised widely. 

As we transition to ways of living with less harmful environmental impacts, the revival of heritage skills and more considered use of materials is necessary. Film archives and museums play an important role here and screenings such as these show us that heritage skills are still relevant today and the inherent beauty in their practise.