Seacourt is raising funds to buy, preserve and revitalise Bangor’s old Ulster bank, but we need your help!
We have big plans for the bank and want it to become a creative hub in the heart of Bangor, Northern Ireland. A community space with amazing opportunities for young people, artists and all our local residents. With your support we will buy the building and secure Seacourt’s long term future as pillar of the local community and play a key part in regenerating the centre of Bangor.
Our Appeal
Seacourt are appealing to the people of Bangor and beyond to help raise funds to buy the old Ulster Bank Building and reclaim it for community use. A beautiful Grade B1 listed building at the top of lower Main Street, Bangor, it is the tallest and most prominent building in the newly designated city centre.
We want to help create a thriving city centre where people can explore heritage, music and visual arts. We offer year-round events and activities that provide fun, creative experiences, connection to other people and the opportunity to explore talents.
We need people who care about Bangor to donate or make a pledge to help us secure the funding we need to buy the bank and fund some minor capital works to make it accessible to the public.
We are seeking government support through the Community Ownership Fund and will secure additional funding from trusts and foundations. But we need your help to raise the remaining £20,000 of the budget as an investment in Bangor.
We believe in Bangor, we believe in its people and we believe that art can help us bring the city centre back to life.
Our Story
Seacourt Print Workshop was founded in 1981 by Margaret Arthur and Jean Duncan. They wanted to be able to practice printmaking close to home and starting small, they established a print workshop in the centre of Bangor. To help pay for overheads and purchase equipment they delivered courses to local people, then schools and the membership started to grow.
Last year we celebrated our 40th anniversary and have been going from strength to strength. We are now a community of 70 plus printmakers with hundreds of people of all ages and abilities engaging in our programmes annually. We have a strong focus on developing positive health and wellbeing through art and printmaking.
Our printmaking workshop is in the heart of the new designated city of Bangor. We are the leading printmaking organisation in Northern Ireland, our space is warm, welcoming and we love to share the magic of printmaking.
Our workshop offers printmakers a place where they can make and exhibit work, explore and share ideas, as well as earn an income through workshop facilitation. Check out our printmakers at work below to get a sense of what goes on behind the scenes:
Our Ulster Bank
Original Screenprint, By Marcus Patton
The old Ulster Bank was built in 1921 at the top of Main Street and is the most prominent in the town centre. The rooftop of our three storey red-brick building with stucco pediments and pilasters can be viewed from all over the town. Over the front door, lions with folded paws form corbels to the porch, which contains the bank’s coat of arms. Featuring an ornate central cornice, adorned with letters and wreaths, alongside baroque scrolls and a friendly gargoyle on the side elevation, this iconic building was once a focal point of Bangor’s historic town centre.
It was set to be demolished in 1990, but there was a considerable public outcry and instead Ulster Bank decided to build a discreet extension to the rear. 75 Main Street has seen many changes over the years, the bank was built in replacement of the Belfast Hotel, which had been on the site since 1860s, and had other purposes such as The Adelaide Tea Rooms and the original Carnegie library, locally known as the reading rooms.
Our aim is not only to prevent this unique, historically and architecturally important building from falling into disrepair and disuse but to become a thriving hub of creativity that helps make Bangor a destination for art.
We are committing to ensuring the building is open for the use of the community for the long-term future and have ambitious plans to enable this.
Why should you support us?
What we are Offering!
Enamel Badge
We have designed a beautiful enamel pin badge as part of our crowdfunding appeal, for those who donate over £25.
Limited Edition Tote Bag
Get your very own custom made, limited edition "Banking on Seacourt" tote bag. Designed in-house, we have a limited number so if you have to have it, please consider pledging £50 or more to receive this and an enamel pin badge!
Our Lucky Dip Prints
If you can afford to donate over £100, we have hand selected original prints by Seacourt members, a limited edition tote bag and an enamel pin-badge. With over 40 years worth of printmakers using our facilities, we have a collection of donated prints of varying techniques to choose from!
A box of Limited Edition Prints from the archive
Our "Crazy Knot" box of prints was based on a project with 10 printmakers and 10 poets commissioned to do new work from a cross section of the political divide. There were many print techniques used, and all were bound in this beautifully presented linen box. This is a treasured artefact, as part of Seacourt's archive and would love it to go to a loving home.
Your name etched in copper on our supporters' wall
For those of you who pledge over £1000, we will etch your name in copper and have it permanently displayed in Bangor's old Ulster Bank!