We’ve pulled together some inspirational creative solutions which have been delivered in partnership with local arts organisations. These ground breaking initiatives successfully enabled the businesses to drive footfall, create a point of difference from competition and to imaginatively engage shoppers.

1. Theatre in Unexpected Places

Theatre can transform shopping centres from a place to shop, into an experience, giving audiences a memorable, shareable reason to engage with the space. We’ve worked with retail spaces across NI to support partnerships with arts organisations which bring places to life.

Raising the Roof

CastleCourt Shopping Centre, in Belfast City Centre has been known to stand out from the crowd and attract visitors by staging performances in unconventional locations. As part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2025, it presented Tinderbox’s new play Dressed for Space –  a personal love story about a man who has arranged for aliens to land on a Belfast rooftop. Written by Patrick J O’Reilly during an artistic residency at Rotterdam Rooftop Festival in 2022, the CastleCourt performance marked both its Northern Irish debut and the shopping centre’s first rooftop performance.

Carpark to Christmas Cheer

The Junction Retail & Leisure Park partnered with local theatre company Cahoots NI on an innovative project to inject a much-needed festive boost. They staged a drive in panto ‘Elves got Talent’  in the carpark. All nine shows sold out with over 610 vehicles in attendance. Customers were blown away by the fast-paced, festive entertainment – this was certainly not what they had expected to find in the car park of a shopping centre!

Embedding The Magic of Theatre

Behind an unassuming black door at Cityside Retail & Leisure Park lies a magical gateway: a 100-seat theatre created by Cahoots NI, where audiences can step away from the everyday and into a world of extraordinary children’s theatre and high-quality arts experiences. The partnership, which enabled Cahoots NI to take over a vacant storage unit within the centre, has helped establish Cityside as a vibrant destination with a distinctive cultural identity, while providing Cahoots NI with a dedicated space for production, rehearsal and performance. For both partners, it has opened the door to new audiences, strengthened connections with the local community and created a unique cultural experience within a retail and leisure environment.

2. The Art of Place

Arts and creativity can transform a place, bringing people together and creating a stronger sense of identity, connection and belonging. We help retail destinations harness the power of creativity to engage their local communities, celebrate what makes them unique and create experiences that people want to be part of.

Art In Bloom

Bloomfield Shopping Centre in Bangor teamed up with creative consultancy Daisy Chain Inc to bring the centre to life through art and creative interventions that reflected its distinct personality – enhancing the overall shopper experience and creating a more engaging sense of place. The partners created 3 external murals which reflected key aspects of Bloomfield’s identity: emphasising local, community and the environment. Additional activity was delivered within the centre to drive animation for shoppers, using creative writing, design and paste ups to build a narrative about diversity, inspired by the bee hives that are located on the shopping centre roof.

3. Breaking Down Barriers

The following two projects use performing arts to break down barriers and meaningfully engage audiences in original ways.

Through Our Eyes

Richmond Centre partnered with Millennium Forum Theatre on a poignant accessibility project: ‘Through Our Eyes’. A video which takes viewers on an accessible journey through the Richmond Centre and the Millennium Forum, highlighting barriers and access issues for people with disabilities as they visit. It was created through the eyes of a person with autism, and was a fun, informative, powerful tool which helped to showcase both the Millennium Forum and Richmond Centre to audiences and shoppers with additional needs.

Achieve Beyond

Foyleside Shopping Centre partnered with The Millennium Forum and Stage Beyond on Achieve Beyond, a three-month pilot programme supporting young adults with learning disabilities to develop skills for the workplace. Using drama and role play, participants worked with professional drama practitioners experienced with working with adults with disabilities, before moving into work placements and mentored roles at The Millennium Forum and neighbouring Foyleside Shopping Centre. The programme received excellent feedback from participants and colleagues alike. For Foyleside, the partnership provided an opportunity to learn from The Millennium Forum’s expertise in accessibility and take meaningful steps towards creating a more inclusive customer and workplace experience, breaking down barriers from recruitment through to customer engagement.

4. Music to our Ears

Live music is another brilliant way to bring spaces to life! We’ve worked with leading shopping destinations to support musical partnerships that help activate spaces and support the local music economy. 

Arts & Community 

Kennedy Shopping Centre is a community focused business rooted in West Belfast. They worked with Andersonstown Traditional & Contemporary Music School over a number of years, before progressing to a mutually beneficial partnership whereby the centre provided an empty unit to host weekly music classes. This provided a home for the music classes for the arts organisation and resulted in increased footfall and meaningful community engagement for the shopping centre, as the music school performed regularly on the mall animating the centre for shoppers. Kennedy Shopping Centre believes that the Arts play a vital role in the community and as a community shopping centre, the partnership with ATCMS aligned perfectly with their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.

Music Centre Stage

Looking to bring family friendly entertainment and a bit of joy to the retail environment, Victoria Square collaborated with the Oh Yeah Music Centre, to deliver a curated live music programme called ‘Centre Stage’, which animated the retail environment while providing paid performance opportunities for local artists. Victoria Square also named Oh Yeah as their Charity of the Year allowing them fundraise within the complex generating vital support for the arts. Over a 9 month period, the project activated the space every weekend with a total of 104 family-friendly live performances, culminating in the integration of The Sound of Belfast Festival. The festival offered cross-promotional benefits which saw 21,502+ attendees engaged, contributing to increased footfall and placemaking for the centre. Victoria Square also reported higher weekend dwell times and positive shopper feedback during activation periods.

These diverse partnership projects give just a taste of what is possible by partnering with an arts organisation. No matter how specific your commercial business objectives may appear, we can help you come up with an innovative approach to deliver your aims memorably and effectively. Book a chat with our team here