Art show looks for a new home
Museum makeover forces institute to move
Paisley’s biggest art show is holding its last exhibition at the town’s museum before the venue shuts for four years for refurbishment.
And the hunt is on for a new space where the 130th annual Paisley Art Institute event can be held in the intervening period.
David Sutton, president of PAI, said he hopes that somewhere in Paisley can be found.
“This will be the last of our annual exhibitions in the museum and arts galleries as we stand just now,” he said.
“I suppose it’s an exciting phase for the Paisley Art Institute – come August, once we take our exhibition down, the museum closes for the £49 million renovation.
“So that will be exciting. And once we get the galleries back, we expect the galleries where roofs have been lowered over the years will be opened up again, the same as the main gallery.”
But come August there will be an interim period when PAI will be out of the Renfrewshire Leisurerun museum and will have to seek out an alternative venue or venues.
“We are in consultation with Renfrewshire Leisure Trust for exhibition venues in the interim,” Mr Sutton said.
“We would certainly prefer somewhere in Paisley but that may not be possible.
“Apparently, the town hall is due for renovation as well. It was to be the realistic and ideal contender but it looks like it’s due for refurbishment, so we’re openminded about options.
“All I can say at the moment is that we’d prefer Paisley, but it depends what the commitment of Renfrewshire Leisure is, because if we hold an exhibition in a nongallery then we are going to have to refurbish it in some way to hang work.”
He added: “It may be that the exhibition would differ slightly.
“It may not be as large as we would normally have, because we always claim it is the largest open exhibition of its kind in Scotland, and maybe even in the UK.
“If we were not to exhibit for four years, there would be an issue with membership and the Paisley Art Institute name disappearing from the art world.
“But we are in meaningful discussions.”
The 130th PAI exhibition, meanwhile, will open on Saturday, May 19.
Works by the late ‘Glasgow Girl’ Bet Low will be featured, and there will be a £500 prize on offer from the Bet Low Trust.
The guest sculptor will be Charlie Poulsen, who is well known in Scottish art circles.
“He is known for drawing and outdoor sculpture as well but his main theme is sculpture and he specialises in sculpting in pieces in wood and lead,” Mr Sutton said.
“We thought that would be quite interesting, given last year we had over 40 sculptural works, which is quite a large display of sculpture.
“So we thought we wanted to keep that going with some interesting sculpture, and modern sculpture, just to complement the paintings.”
In total more than 500 works of art will be featured in the exhibition, most of which will be for sale.
The show, which will run until Sunday, June 24, will also feature the ever-popular schools competition.