Behind the Door: Stories of the Gate Lodge – Memory Box Workshop

Step into the history of the Good Shepherd Gate Lodge and explore the hidden lives connected to this threshold space.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll create a decorated wooden memory box, transforming it into a miniature interior or symbolic space inspired by the people who may have lived, worked, or passed through the lodge. Both the inside and outside of the box become part of the story — what is seen, and what is kept hidden.

Gate lodges were places of watching, welcoming, and control — small buildings connected to much larger systems of movement and care. The Good Shepherd complex was part of a wider network shaped by women’s lives, labour, and changing social histories.

Across cultures, people have always used boxes, containers, and small personal objects to hold memory, identity, and meaning — from keepsake tins and hope chests to memory boxes and devotional spaces. This workshop invites you to explore how we create a sense of home and self, even within constrained or transitional spaces.

Using collage, textiles, paper, and found materials, you’ll design a box that might be:

• a reflection of a life connected to the lodge
• a space of comfort, privacy, or resistance
• inspired by Victorian domestic details
• or influenced by your own cultural experience of home

Victorian Dolls House Display will also be onsite for inspiration.

Victorian Style High Tea snacks included.

Shared Roots is part of the From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism led by ArtsEkta, Kabosh and Cairde na Cille under the Belfast Local Community Action Plan, supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.