About Us

As you explore our website, you’ll find out details about all of these events. You’ll also discover more about the work we do at Ards and North Down Borough Council (ANDBC) in maintaining our local culture and encouraging others to engage with it.

We’re passionate about getting the local community involved with our shared cultural legacy, which continues to grow year on year through the talents of new creative professionals. To inspire ownership of this, we subsequently manage two fantastic venues, where everyone from young children and teens, to adults and senior citizens can experience our cultural offerings in many different ways.

Our cultural venues include:

• Ards Arts Centre
• North Down Museum

We have a whole host of things to see and do at Ards Arts Centre and North Down Museum and you can find more details on each by clicking on their individual web pages.

To encourage community engagement with our local culture, we provide a wide range of services at both locations, including:

• Arts and heritage events and exhibitions
• Opportunities for cultural learning
• Funding opportunities for individuals and groups
• Outreach activity
• Professional development for artists resident in the borough
• Information and publications on the cultural heritage of our borough 

We hope that by encouraging community engagement with local culture, more and more people within the borough will understand the value of our work and support our vision for developing our arts and heritage offerings. 

Indeed, at the heart of the Integrated Arts and Heritage Development Strategy for Ards and North Down is the importance of getting more people involved in arts and heritage. The strategy identifies what’s really special about our local culture, which includes a history coloured by creative industry and ambition. 

This history offers a firm foundation for our ongoing development and we invite you to join us as we forge ahead with our plans for the future…

The Integrated Arts and Heritage Development Strategy for Ards and North Down sets out a vision for the development of arts and heritage for the whole borough. It builds on extensive work already completed by the Council and its partners and takes its lead from the Big Plan for Ards and North Down.

You can download the strategy here.

Other Council information can be found on our main website.