News & Press

2025

A group of 16 people, some seated, some standing, inside a museum store. The storage racks are in the background.

Makers selected for contemporary craft exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and Ulster Museum

09.12.2025

New, contemporary craft works inspired by the collections of National Museums Scotland and National Museums NI will be displayed in a collaborative exhibition, opening at the National Museum of Scotland in summer 2027, then at the Ulster Museum in early 2028. 

Read news

News

National Museums NI enhances the visitor experience with LS Central and Microsoft Dynamics 365

04.12.2025

Working with Sysco Software, we are pleased to announce the launch of LS Central across National Museums NI sites, delivered in partnership with iDyam Solutions.

Read news

Photo caption L-R: Hannah Crowdy, Head of Curatorial at National Museums NI, Damian McFerran, Record Centre Manager at CEDaR, Andrew Muir MLA, Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Sara McGuckin, Head of Natural Science at Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)

News

CEDaR marks 30 years of evidence-led environmental action

25.11.2025

The Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR) has marked its 30th anniversary with a conference and publication launch celebrating its long-standing role in advancing environmental monitoring and public engagement across Northern Ireland.

Read news

The main focus of the picture is on a report titled 'Trans-Inclusive Culture'. The book cover is coloured blue and pink-purple and is in the hands of a woman wearing silver rings and has pink nails, as she flicks through the document. You can make out a woman in a black and white dress sitting in the background of the picture..

News

National Museums NI joins partnership backed by Art Fund to advance trans inclusion

19.05.2025

The University of Leicester's Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) has established a partnership supported by Art Fund – the national charity for art – with leading UK museums, galleries and heritage organisations to support a bold and ambitious step change in the capacity and confidence of the UK’s culture sector to advance trans inclusion.

Read news

2024

Chief Executive of National Museums NI, Kathryn Thomson, dressed in a black jumpsuit, shakes hands with Princess Anne as she receives an awards. Princess Anne wears a tan coloured blazer, neck scarf and gloves.

News

National Museums NI recognised by Princess Royal Training Awards

29.11.2024

Now established as a prestigious and sought-after accolade, this year’s Princess Royal Training Awards attracted 127 applications from across the UK and Ireland with 52 winners - National Museums NI being one of them.

Read news

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons & Kathryn Thomson, Chief Executive of National Museums NI

News

Communities Minister commends engineering heritage at museum visits

15.11.2024

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has visited the Ulster Folk Museum and the Ulster Transport Museum. As part of the visits, Minister Lyons viewed the latest exhibit in the impressive transport collection.

Read news

News

Voices of '74: Ulster Museum unveils powerful oral history project

25.10.2024

The online project draws on the importance of oral history to document the memories and experiences of the past, in order to encourage conversations about the future

Read news

2023

The back of a person standing looking at a Peruzzi painting on a blue painted wall with down lighting

News

Christmas Gift to the Nation

12.12.2023

Rare painting by the Italian artist Peruzzi - the only surviving work by the artist in the UK - goes on display at the Ulster Museum. The Nativity dates back to the 16th century and was acquired by National Museums NI in 2022.

Three people dressed in dark clothes in a grassy area with trees in the background and two of them are standing near signs that promote an environmental and biodiversity message - 'meadow in progress' and 'let it bee'.

News

CEDaR unveils 10-year business plan to combat environmental and biodiversity crisis

4.12.2023

CEDaR is the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording and is a longstanding partnership between National Museums NI, DAERA, NIEA and the recording community in Northern Ireland.

Costumed guide at the Ulster Folk Museum holding a pitch fork on the farm during a learning programme for schools. Seven school children dressed in white t-shirts all have their backs to the camera, as they're interacting with the guide.

News

Ulster Folk Museum awarded the national Heritage Education Trust Sandford Award for the first time

10.11.2023

Ulster Folk Museum has been awarded the prestigious Sandford Award which recognises the high standard of our educational programme for schools.

2022-2019

Conservation Fellow at the National Gallery seated restoring Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi's The Nativity.

News

Ulster Museum to be gifted Peruzzi’s The Nativity

24.12.2022

The incredibly rare sixteenth century work has been acquired by National Museums NI, in Christmas gift to the nation.

Attendees at an event held today at Ulster Museum.

News

Human Rights Day: Conflict textiles pieces acquired by National Museums NI

9.12.2022

Transnational textiles representing the personal experiences of those affected by conflict, including within Northern Ireland, taken into Ulster Museum's collection.

a man and two women beside a christmas tree

News

Art Unwrapped is back for its fifth consecutive year

9.12.2022

The annual ‘gift to the city’ will be on display at Ulster University’s new Belfast Campus.