Halloween in Paisley 2024

Paisley’s Halloween Festival 2024 is set to be a spectacular event, celebrating its 10th anniversary with some exciting changes and the return of the much-loved parade through the town centre12. Here are some highlights:

Dates and Times: The festival will take place on Friday, October 25th from 4pm to 9pm, and Saturday, October 26th from 2pm to 9pm.
Parade: A 300-strong parade will wind through the town centre each night starting at 7pm. Expect to see professional performers, community groups, and festival favourites like PyroCeltica and Spark! LED Drummers.
New Route: The parade will take a new route through Mill Street for the first time.
Funfair: The funfair will be relocated to the Lagoon Car Park and East End Park, offering plenty of entertainment for kids.
Daytime Entertainment: There will be live performances, eerie lighting displays, arts and crafts sessions, and street food options.
Special Installations: Look out for spooky installations like the Flaming Gargoyle, the Ghost Ship, and the Giant Witch, and theme decorated interventions like Paisley Abbey and the Paisley Library.
The event is free to attend, but there will be a limited number of ticketed grandstand seats available for a fantastic view of the parade.

Are you planning to attend? 🎃👻

With info from:
paisley.org.uk – paisley.is – uk.news.yahoo.com – millmagazine.co.uk – visitscotland.org

The Big Art Show

The Big Art Show in Paisley is a major public art exhibition held at The Art Department on Causeyside Street. This year’s show runs from Friday, August 30th to Saturday, November 16th, 202412. It’s one of Scotland’s largest open-entry art exhibitions, featuring a wide range of artworks including paintings, drawings, photography, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, installation art, digital art, film, video, and sound2.

The exhibition is organized by Outspoken Arts Scotland Ltd in conjunction with Art Paisley Ltd, and it showcases nearly 1,000 artworks from the UK and beyond2. Most of the artworks are available for sale, and the event is expected to attract around 15,000 visitors2.

Are you planning to visit the show?

Pressing the links opens another tab, PicturingPaisley is not responsible of those links

Those were our submissions:

Sma’ Shot DAY

Sma’ Shot Day is a vibrant celebration held in Paisley. It commemorates a 19th-century victory by the town’s weavers over their employers during an industrial dispute. The weavers used a cotton thread called the Sma’ Shot to bind colourful weft threads into the famous shawls. However, since the Sma’ Shot was unseen in the finished garments, the manufacturers (known locally as “corks”) refused to pay for it. The weavers had no choice but to buy the thread themselves. The festival features a parade, live performances, workshops, family entertainment, and more. It’s one of the world’s oldest worker’s festivals!

Certainly! The Sma’ Shot Day parade is a lively and colorful procession that takes place during the Sma’ Shot Day celebration in Paisley, Scotland. Here are some highlights:

  1. Weavers’ Heritage: The parade pays homage to the town’s weaving heritage. Floats, costumes, and banners showcase the history of weaving, the struggles of the weavers, and their victory over the manufacturers.
  2. Community Participation: Local organizations, schools, and community groups participate in the parade. They create eye-catching displays, perform music, and dance along the route.
  3. Shawls and Threads: Expect to see giant shawls, looms, and spools of colorful threads. These represent the craftsmanship and creativity of the weavers.
  4. Street Performers: Musicians, dancers, and street performers entertain the crowd. Bagpipers, drummers, and folk bands add to the festive atmosphere.
  5. Crowd Interaction: Spectators often join in, clapping, cheering, and dancing alongside the parade. It’s a joyful and inclusive event.

Remember, the Sma’ Shot Day parade is a celebration of resilience, community spirit, and the rich textile history of Paisley! 🎉

I hope this gives you a glimpse of the vibrant Sma’ Shot Day parade! If you have any more questions or need further details, feel free to ask. 😊

Sma’ Shot Day in Paisley is a lively celebration of the historic victory by local weavers over their employers during an industrial dispute. Here’s what’s happening during the festivities on Saturday, July 6, 2024:

  1. Sma’ Shot Parade (12pm – 1pm): The parade, coordinated by Bridgeman Arts, brings to life the traditional weavers’ celebration. It honors their victory and shares exciting stories from the past. This year, it highlights performers and characters who might have appeared at Paisley Fair.
  2. Abbey Close (12pm – 4pm): Enjoy stalls and family-friendly entertainment in Abbey Close.
  3. Stage Programm

Did you know that? 

Is Paisley Photographic Society the oldest photographic society in Scotland? It was founded in 1857 and continues to operate today.

The town also established the Paisley Government School of Art and Design in 1846, and enthusiasm for the arts was so prevalent that it led to the establishment of the Paisley Art Institute in 1876. 

At the University of the West of Scotland, you can also study photography at the HND level at various campuses, including our very own Paisley Campus. Students always host their end-of-year exhibitions at a local venue.

One famous photographer from the town is Alexander Gardner, and you will have seen at least one of his photographs, his portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Taken in February 1865, it was an album in silver print made by contact printing a glass negative on light-sensitive paper. The large glass negative broke after it was developed, and only one print was made before the negative was discarded. Gardiner was famous for taking many pictures of the American Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln by Gardiner.

Today, in Paisley, we are lucky to have many great photographers and artists who use the medium as a reference for creating their work. 

The Art Department at Paisley, a large art space on Causeyside Street, encourages artists to explore their creativity and exhibit there.

Carole Gledhill from the Picturing Paisley group and her cyanotypes.

Picturing Paisley exhibition on hoardings outside the museum on Paisley High Street on September 26
Picturing Paisley exhibition on hoardings outside the museum on the Paisley High Street on September 26.

The Art Department at Paisley

The Magic of Cyanotypes

Hi, I’m Carole Gledhill from the Picturing Paisley group.
I love being part of this group, as everyone has a different approach to their photography. We are always learning from each other, and we all like to explore new ideas. A couple of years ago, I attended a 1-day course on Cyanotype, and I was immediately hooked!. The traditional cyanotype is a camera-less photographic process, first discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel and made famous by his botanist friend Anna Atkinson. This is how it works:
Two chemicals are mixed to create a light-sensitive solution. Paper or fabric can be coated in this solution and left to dry in the dark. Prints are then made by placing objects on the coated surface and exposing them to UV light, either the sun or an ultraviolet lamp. The exposed surface is then processed by washing in water, after which the wonderful Prussian Blue colour will appear, while the image of the object will appear white or various shades of blue.
I enjoy exploring this process and find it works well with botanical specimens, lace, feathers—anything that will allow some light to pass through. By adding substances that interfere with the process, such as vinegar, soap bubbles, turmeric, salt, etc., a wider range of colours can be achieved. This is known as the wet Cyanotype method, and the results are much more unpredictable!
I’m now dipping my toe in the water in terms of submitting my work to various exhibitions, with some success. You can view 3 of my cyanotypes in the forthcoming exhibition, The Teardrop Explodes, throughout May & June in The Art Department, Causeyside St, Paisley, and a wider range of my cyanotypes can be seen on my Instagram account, @the_blue_herbarium. Thank you for reading!

Anchor Mill Building

Cotton thread manufacturing has made Paisley well-known. Anchor Mill is a finishing mill in Paisley on the White Cart River. It was designed in 1886 by architects Woodhouse & Morley. In 1980, a working mill featuring red brick exterior and arched windows was designated as a listed building. June 2003 saw the start of the conversion into 60 opulent apartments and commercial spaces. It was the perfect choice for our first set of photo cards because it is just one of the town’s many stunning architectural features. Each participant took a different angle of the building and selected their favourite view to create the card set, which we intend to release later this year. We have had a great time taking pictures of the building from various perspectives, and we will share a few of them with you right now for your enjoyment.

Spring, at last…

Spring has indeed arrived in Paisley, bringing a delightful renewal and warmth. The air is no longer frigid, and the last remnants of snow in the mountains have melted away. The birds have returned, serenading us with their morning chorus. I even had the pleasure of spotting a shy jay up close as it hopped onto the bird feeder—a rare sight! 🌸🐦

There’s even more to celebrate in the heart of Paisley town centre this season. The Spring Farmyard Trail is underway, featuring ten animals that have left their farmyards to graze in town. The farmer needs our help to find them all! 🐄🐑🐖

To participate, pick up a trail leaflet from the Piazza Shopping Centre or the Paisley Shopping Centre, or download your copy from the Paisley First website. As you explore, keep an eye out for these friendly farmyard creatures. When you reach the last participating business, Kettle Black, beside County Square, you’ll receive a free crème egg as a sweet reward. Don’t forget to drop your completed entry form into one of the special Farmyard post boxes in the shopping centres to win one of two bumper Spring Hampers! 🥚🌼

So let’s embrace the season, enjoy the fresh air, and make the most of this delightful Spring in Paisley! 🌱🌞

“What is Paisley to you?”

Did you know that we set ourselves a monthly theme and try to relate all our Instagram posts to it for the month? It gives us a challenge and helps us to focus our thoughts on producing photographs that positively reflect on Paisley. It provides fun for our regular followers to see what we come up with.

Our documentary-type photographs usually tell us a story, bring out some kind of emotional response or fix a time and place in history.

This month, we are asking, “What is Paisley to you?”. As humans, we all create fond memories of a time and a place that is as individual as we are. 

Let us know what Paisley means to you. Here are some examples of the town’s heritage, people, and cultural scene.

Our Architecture
Nature in our town

Our Heritage

Legacy

Barshaw Park – Annual Photo Fence.

‘Have you ever seen a Photo Fence? Here at Picturing Paisley, we have presented several of these for the enjoyment of our Paisley Community. Currently, we are exhibiting on the railings outside the entrance to Barshaw Park, one of our well-established and much-cherished green spaces in Paisley.

This is the second time that we have used this particular space for the exhibition of our work, and we are hoping to make this an annual event as it coincides with a festival hosted across the month by another community group in the town. The Festival is known as “Feel Good February” and is a very welcome month of activities designed to sweep away the winter blues and welcome spring back into our lives. A perfect fusion of partnership working!

Our fences have a very basic presentation of A4 laminated photographs and are secured with tie wraps. While this may appear to lack finesse, it is a very practical and inexpensive way for us, who are totally self-funded, to show photographs to the general public to stimulate conversation, enjoyment, memories and creativity in everyone.

We have themed this particular exhibition around the magnificent Anchor Thread Mill, which sits on the banks of the White Cart River and has been converted into luxury flats. It reminds us every day of the town’s past heritage and industry. The photographs present different views and angles of the exterior of the building.

We encourage you, if possible, to visit our exhibition, which runs from 1st – 29th February, and to have a walk in our beautiful park, or to travel from there into Paisley to view this magnificent building for yourself. Enjoy!

Anchor Mill Paisley reflected in the White Cart.