Description of impact
This year-long festival was based on original Dickens scholarship, and has impacted upon culture and leisure services; schools, colleges and lifelong learning; charities; community organisations; and the media. The delivery mechanism was a year-long festival, known as Dickens 2012 NI (Registered charity no. XT33252), which attracted thirty thousand of people of all ages. It organised events covering literature, theatre, music, the visual arts, museums, and education. The project achieved the following impacts:- an increased level of understanding among all participants of Dickens's multiple literary and personal connections with Ireland
- the provision of professional expertise on Dickens and Ireland, drawn upon frequently by the arts sector and the media, which allowed them to provide informed, authoritative pronouncements on this subject, particularly during the Dickens bicentenary year
- the conception and delivery of public exhibitions with demonstrable benefit for culture and leisure services, through enhanced access to events which had a positive effect on well-being
- the provision of work-placement opportunities in arts management for Queen's postgraduate students, thus enhancing their employment prospects
- a set of formal links with the young people's charity Barnardo's, particularly for delivering outreach work on literacy, which excited young people in disadvantaged areas about reading, and enhanced their engagement with the arts in a suitable accessible form
Narrative
Dickens 2012 NI‘Celebrating Dickens’s unique relationship with Ulster’ was the strap-line for Dickens 2012 NI, a year-long festival that honoured Dickens with several exhibitions, numerous film screenings and theatrical productions, lectures, dramatised readings, and a read-a-thon. Festival director Dr Leon Litvack felt that Northern Ireland needed a programme with a distinct regional flavour, celebrating Dickens’s personal and professional connections with the area. Accordingly, the festival included an exhibition about ‘Dickens: Irish Friends and Family Ties’ at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and ten sell-out performances of ‘Dickens at Ulster Hall’, a one-man play starring Sam McCready. Another highlight was an exhibition at Ulster Museum curated by Litvack, and based on his own original research, which told the story of Dickens’s three visits to Ireland through rare print materials, artefacts borrowed from the Charles Dickens Museum, and extracts from the author’s work. Entitled ‘Charles Dickens on Tour: the Belfast Public Readings’ this two-week exhibition captivated 22,189 visitors. Litvack hoped that the festival would encourage a sense of identification with a writer who had a keen interest in Ireland and so planned a programme that was accessible to all, dominated by free or low-cost events, and including everything from family-friendly craft activities, to a traditional reading group and an innovative production by the Wireless Mystery Theatre, which presented Dickens’s novels in the style of a 1950s radio broadcast.
Dickens 2012 NI attracted more than 30,000 visitors, helping to change perceptions of Dickens in Ireland and having a positive impact on the local community. Indeed, Litvack’s ongoing work with six schools as part of Barnardo’s ‘Ready to Learn’ literacy programme may have a lifelong legacy in creatively engaging underprivileged children with the Arts. The festival’s eclectic mix of events aimed to entertain and inspire while fundamentally capturing the ‘spirit of fun’ that Dickens treasured.
Impact status | Completed |
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Impact date | 01 Jan 2012 → 31 Dec 2012 |
Category of impact | Economic Impact, Quality of Life Impact, Societial Impact, Cultural Impact, Other Impact |
Impact level | Engagement |
Keywords
- Dickens, Charles
- Bicentenary
- Ireland
- Dickens 2012 NI
Documents & Links
Related content
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Press/Media
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Thought for the Day: Oliver Twist and genealogy 24 July 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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For shared celebrations let's take a leaf from Dickens's book 7 Feb 2012 Belfast Telegraph
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Pass Notes: Irish News review of 'Dickens: Irish Friends Family Ties'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Evening Extra interview Great Expectations 21 Dec 2011 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Arts Extra Dickens special 7 Feb 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Great Expectations Book Programme 24 Apr 2011 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Thought for the Day: Our Mutual Friend and the UK Citizenship test 14 Aug 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Prayer for the Day: Charles Dickens's Letters 26 Jan 2012 BBC Radio 4
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Thought for the Day: Dickens's novel Dombey and Son and female empowerment 31 July 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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This New Day Dickens and Christmas 28 Dec 2011 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Dickens 200th Anniversary 6 Feb 2012 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Dickens fans to celebrate author's bicentenary: Irish News, 26 Jan 2012
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Arts Extra Dickens exhibition Ulster Museum 19 Oct 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Evening Extra close of Dickens 2012 NI Festival 20 Dec 2012 BBC Radio Ulster
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Activities
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Dickens and Belfast
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Cliftonville Primary School
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Fagin the Jew: Lecture at Jewish Book Week 19 Feb 2012
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Discovering Dickens Through the Arts: A Workshop for Children
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Dickens, Ireland and the Irish
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Dickens's A Christmas Carol; Dickens and Ulster
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Dickensian Christmas Music at Belfast City Hall: A Charity Talk & Recital on behalf of Barnardo's
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Adrian Wooton
Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting of external, non-academic visitor
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Dickens Society Annual Symposium 1999
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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David Copperfield Read-a-Thon Dickens 2012 NI
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Libraries NI Reading & Discussion of Dickens's A Christmas Carol
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Tullycarnet Primary School
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Fiona Jenkins
Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting of external, non-academic visitor
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Mercy Primary School
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Private tour of the Charles Dickens Museum, London, as part of Dickens 2012 NI Festival, for Friends of the Linen Hall Library
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Dickens on Tour: The Belfast Public Readings
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Dickens's Journalism; Dickens and Ireland
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Dickens readings for Schoolchildren
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Wreath laying by Prince of Wales on Grave of Charles Dickens, Westminster Abbey, 7 Feb 2012, to mark the Dickens BIcentenary
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Remembering the Past, Building the Future: Dickens and the Ethics of Memorialising
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Dickens 2012 NI
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Whitehouse Primary School
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Dickens, Ireland and the Irish
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Buckingham Palace invitation to mark DIckens bicentenary
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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SSNCI Annual Conference 2001 (Society for the Study of 19th-century Ireland)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Charles Dickens Reading & Musical Evening, Public Record Office of NI 22 Feb 2012
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Dickens and Ireland
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Dickens's Public Readings; part of Dickens 2012 NI Festival
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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St Aidan's Primary School
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Dickens on Tour: The Belfast Public Readings
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Michael Slater
Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting an academic visitor
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Dickens's 'The Signalman': A Puppet Show for Children. Part of the Dickens 2012 NI Festival
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Dickens and America: The Irish Dimension
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Dickens 2012 NI Launch Event, Ulster Hall, 25 Jan 2012
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Dickens and the Irish in New York
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Dickens's A Christmas Carol: A Tale for Our Times
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Dickens and Ireland
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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St Colman's College
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting a School
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Robert Powell
Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting of external, non-academic visitor
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Florian Schweizer
Activity: Hosting a visitor types › Hosting of external, non-academic visitor
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'No words can express the secret agony of my soul': Childhood, Memory and Memoir
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Dickens, Ireland and the Irish
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Research output
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January 26: Charles Dickens
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Charles Dickens: Life, Work and Legacy: An exhibition held in Carrickfergus to celebrate the Dickens bicentenary; curated by Leon Litvack
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition
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Datasets