A THANK you event is to be organised for the people of Paisley after their support has been praised by Paisley 2021 organisers.
The town missed out on the City of Culture title to Coventry, but bid director Jean Cameron said that process had "given Paisley a chance to believe in itself". Cameron said an event, with the date yet to be announced, will be organised to thank the 34,000 who helped the town progress throughout the competition. She said that they wanted to capitalise on the new sense of relevance which had been created, with the message that the journey would continue.
"It's emotional. The bidding process was really positive for us, we should be really proud," she said. "We're the only UK town ever to make the shortlist – out of any town, city, urban area, we're the smallest place, so we were certainly punching above our weight, or above our size."
She went on: "For the judging panel to put us through, it gave us a chance to show to the world that we are special. That gave Paisley a chance to believe in itself. Certainly some people at the start had to be taken on that journey and the whole competition and being short-listed has sky-rocketed our own belief in ourselves – that's what we use going forward.
"I think people are looking at things differently, and that is found across the social fabric of the town. We're all 'Team Paisley' now and together we're going to move forward and achieve great things."
Existing events include the Paisley Halloween Festival, The annual Sma' Shot Day and Weave Festival and The Spree arts festival. It will also host the British Pipe Band Championships until 2021 and The Royal National Mòd will also return to the town.
On Wednesday December 15, Creative Renfrewshire – a network of 200 creatives, freelances and voluntary organisations – will hold an open (but ticketed) event asking "What's Next?" for the town.
Meanwhile council leaders announced they would spend more than £50 million to revitalise Paisley as a cultural hub, which will include a £24m refurbishment of the town's museum, £22m on Paisley's historic Town Hall and another £2.5m on the Arts Centre. Cameron said that as part of the bidding process, a 100-day transition plan was compiled to follow the result, with many events still being rolled out.
She added: "The bidding period has created the opportunities and that platform to build on, so we'll be using the structure of the 100 days to pull out elements. A number of the London-based trusts and foundations that we spoke to during the bidding period hadn't had Paisley on their radar. They said 'come and speak to us in January anyway, we like the cut of your gib and want to get to know you'."
David Watt, chief executive of Arts & Business Scotland, said there was a fantastic opportunity to harness the momentum and collective good built up over the last few years.
He said: "In particular, many local businesses have already shown an active commitment to get behind the bid and work in partnership with the local arts and heritage communities to deliver an outstanding programme of cultural activity in Paisley. Many elements of that programme could still happen."
Diarmaid Lawlor, an expert in urban design from Architecture and Design Scotland, said that while he was "extremely disappointed" at the result of the bid, Paisley now had much to capitalise on.
He added: "Although they weren't successful I think that through this process three interesting things were achieved.
"The first is visibility – the bid made the people, places and spaces where things are happening more obvious.
"The second is capability – before the bid people in Paisley often didn't work together but together they have built this amazing capability both between and within communities. It's a really strong foundation to build on. The third is possibility. When you know a place well it can be easy to focus on the problems. This allowed people to step away ask: 'what if, is it possible to, I wonder if we can'. From that perspective this has been an incredibly successful journey."
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