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Picturing Paisley – A TH.CARS2 Project

In 2019, artist Morwenna Kearsley was commissioned to produce Picturing Paisley, a project exploring the town’s history of textiles manufacturing through its built environment.

Using photography as the primary means of expression, Morwenna worked with three different groups, brought together by the Disability Resource Centre, Outspoken Arts and West College Scotland.

Creating their own photo-stories through a series of workshops, participants undertook research trips to Paisley town centre and visited collections at Paisley Thread Mill Museum and University of Glasgow Archives.

The first Picturing Paisley exhibition took place at POP Community Arts & Events Space, Paisley in October/November 2019, displaying work created by HNC Photography students from West College Scotland.

This was followed by a second exhibition at POP in January/February 2020 showing photo-stories created by the Outspoken Arts group.

A final exhibition featuring work by Morwenna and all three groups was due to take place in Paisley in 2020. Instead a film—dedicated to the memory of Disability Resource Centre group member Duncan Townson—has been released by Renfrewshire Council. Edited by Morwenna, this documents the Picturing Paisley project through the voices and images of some of its participants.

To coincide with the public launch of the Picturing Paisley film, a selection of images by Morwenna Kearsley and all three groups was displayed on the High Street outside Paisley Museum.

Since their workshops finished, the group brought together by Outspoken Arts has continued to meet independently. New work created by them can be viewed on their Instagram page through the link at bottom of this page.

For their contribution to the project, thanks to:

The Disability Resource Centre’s Photography Group: John Brennan; Kirsty Brown; Brenda Caldwell; Christopher Chetty; Reginald Dewer Hannen; Ian Fulton; and Duncan Townson.

The Outspoken Arts Photography Group: Karen Bohme; Carole Gledhill; Audrey Hall; Christopher Kyle; Christine M Kyle; Catherine Lynch; Avilio S Mãndez-Delgado; Jules O’Brien; and Susanne Scott-Bottomley.

The 2019/20 HNC Photography students from West College Scotland: Claudia Alexandria Pires Dionisio; Alex Anderson; Scott Bell; Ali Burden-Blake; Joe Donnelly; Chloé Farrell; Ross Ferguson; Christopher Grayson; Maddie Howard; Szymon Kubiak; Patrycja Laskowska; Matthew Lahn-Johannessen McIntyre; Paulina Markiewicz; Shay Martin; Ryan McClearly; David McClure; John Masson; Oliver Montgomery; Lauren Mulvey; Emma Ogilvie; Catherine Rea; Connor Sutherland; Amanda Tomlinson; Robbie Wightman; and Tamara Woodcock.

For their support of the project, thanks to: staff and volunteers at Disability Resource Centre; Clare McDade; Steven Thomson and Outspoken Arts; Paisley Thread Mill Museum; Renfrewshire Leisure and the staff at POP; University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections; Robert Tabor, Angie Isaacs and West College Scotland.

 

Supported by TH.CARS2

Contact

Paisley TH.CARS2 Project Team
Regeneration and Economic Development Service
Chief Executive’s Service
Renfrewshire Council
Renfrewshire House
Cotton Street
Paisley PA1 1WB