Account no longer in use

 Please note all future details will be on our Facebook page - Paisley Philosophical Institution or Twitter @paisleyphiloso1

Victoria Irvine - John Henning

Our next meeting takes place on Thursday 5 May, over Zoom at 7.30 pm. The speaker will be Victoria Irvine on John Henning, Modeller and his connection to Paisley Museum. This was previously scheduled for 7th April

Synopsis of talk-

This talk will provide a biographical overview of the life and work of Paisley modeller John Henning (1771-1851), contextualising his work and utilising the collections of Paisley Museum.

 

Bio –

Dr Victoria Irvine is an Art Curator working on the research, interpretation and display of the art collection for the £42 million redevelopment of Paisley Museum and Art Galleries. Victoria was awarded her PhD from the University of Glasgow and she specialises in 19^th-century British art, with an interest in women’s history.  Victoria has written about Pat Douthwaite for The Guardian’s Great British Art Tour (2021) and Joan Eardley for the Museums Journal (2021). She is a member of the Scottish Women and the Arts Network.

Andrea Pearson - Climate Emergency: A personal View

Our next talk will be held over Zoom on Thursday 10th March at 7.30. The speaker will be Andrea Pearson giving a personal overview of the climate emergency. Andrea has kindly given us a precis of the talk and some background information.

Precis

 

This talk is an update of one originally presented to staff at Paisley Museum Reimagined in November 2021 to mark COP26.

It does not aim to be a fully comprehensive lecture on climate. It’s more of a personal overview of some of the main issues around the Climate Emergency. It covers some climate science, a little of the history, a bit of psychology, biology, some politics, sociology and even some art and culture.

It will also look at some of the things that the museum is planning to do to help tackle climate change, and it explores other initiatives taking place in Paisley. Hopefully it will be a starting point for a lively discussion.

 

Bio

 

Andrea Pearson is a journalist currently working at Paisley Museum editing text – as the museum prepares to reopen with new exhibits and interpretation.

She spent 20 years at The Herald where she worked on various Newsquest newspaper titles and magazine publications such as The Sunday Herald Magazine, Business HQ, Luxury and Best of Scotland. Long ago she had a campervan and was the Sunday Herald travel editor. She also worked for several years on The List Eating and Drinking Guide eating her way around Glasgow … and subsequently devised and ran a food and heritage tour of Glasgow.

Although she is not a scientist, she has always had an interest in science – one recently unearthed school report revealed that she was ‘always going on about science documentaries’.

She is absolutely thrilled to have been asked to speak at the PPI.

Rise and Fall of the Paisley Shawl

 Our nest meeting is on Zoom on 24 February at 7.30 pm. The speaker will be Lucy McConnell who has provided the following information:

Abstract 

The Paisley shawl was one of the most recognisable accessories in western fashion through the nineteenth century. Originally produced in Kashmir India, the pine pattern shawl, as it was then known in the west, was imitated by several centres in Europe in the late eighteenth century before its arrival on Paisley’s looms in 1805. In this presentation, Lucy will explore the social, cultural, political, economic, and technological changes which proved to alter what would become known as the Paisley shawl through the nineteenth century. From the beginning of shawl production in the town, Paisley was hugely important in the shawl trade. Through interactive examination of surviving examples of shawls made in Paisley, the role of Paisley’s weavers in the global fashion phenomenon that was the Paisley shawl will be brought to the fore.

 Biography 

Lucy, a Dress and Textile Historian with specialisms in textiles produced in Paisley, Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the British government's Utility Clothing Scheme during the Second World War, is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Huddersfield, England. Within research, Lucy seeks to unearth the hidden histories of individuals and groups involved in the manufacture and sale of garments and textiles, through exploring the social, cultural, political, economic, and technological histories within the written record and imbued in material cultures of extant objects. Lucy’s research interests, ranging from the eighteenth century to the present day, have enabled them to work on several projects from exhibitions and archiving, to written publications, conference presentations and guest lecturing, and advising on historical costume for television. 

Social Media 

Instagram @diary_of_a_dress_historian 

Twitter @Diary_DressHist 

TikTok @diaryof_a_dresshistorian

Upcoming talks

 We are delighted to announce that we have 5 more Zoom lectures coming up between now and the end of April. Our thanks go to the speakers who have helped us pull these together at short notice.

All talks will be free and take place on Thursday evenings at 7.30.

The speakers and subjects are:

24/02/2022 - Lucy McConnell, Dress Historian - The Rise and Fall of the Paisley Shawl

10/03/2022 - Andrea Pearson, Paisley Museum - Climate Emergency

24/03/2022 - Conor Wilson, Lecturer in Criminology & Criminal Justice, UWS - Telling the Untold Story: Representing Paisley, Culture and Regeneration

07/04/2022 - Victoria Irvine, Paisley Museum - John Henning (1771-1851), Modeller and former speaker at Paisley Philosophical

21/04/2022 - John Pressly, Science Curator, Paisley Museum – “Corozal”, the Renfrew built dredger which helped to build the Panama Canal

More details will follow shortly.

Archie Henderson - Enlightened ideals 27 January 2022 @ 7.30

 The Paisley Philosophical Institution are planning to do a short series of Zoom talks over the next few weeks which will be free to all, in the hope that these will encourage people to consider joining the Institution.

Our next full session will start in September 2022 when it is hoped we will be able to resume live meetings, possibly supplemented by live streaming, as well as online only talks, which will allow us to engage speakers from further afield.

However, in order to carry out these plans we urgently need to rebuild our membership, which was already falling drastically prior to Covid.

It would be a pity if this long established and revered Institution (founded in 1808), which has contributed so much to Paisley over the years, was to be wound up.

The first talk in this free short series will be by Archie Henderson, from Paisley Museum on 27 January at 7.30.

The subject of the talk, entitled “Enlightened Ideals”, is a retrospective of the various buildings associated with the Paisley Free Library and Museum, taking us from 1868 to the present day.

Link to the event is here

Special meeting 7 December 2021

On Tuesday 7 December at 7.15 we will be hosting a Zoom meeting to discuss the future of the Institution. We see this meeting as vitally important to the PPI.

This meeting will be open to all interested parties, as we would like to attract new members.

At the moment our meetings, consist of a speaker giving a presentation of around 45v minutes, followed by a Q&A.

We will discuss the nature of meetings and also what type of speaker people would like to hear. In addition would visits to places such as the Secret Collection be of interest.

Also do people wish to meet on-line, in person or a combination of the two.

Please contact us at paisley.philsophy@gmail.com if you wish to participate.

A Zoom link will be sent out shortly before the meeting.