Paisley Museum Transformation: A World-Class Visitor Destination and Community Space for All

Many of you will have seen the work to transform Paisley Museum into a world-class visitor destination taking shape in recent months—so here’s an update on what’s being built and what it will mean for you.

The work is Scotland’s biggest cultural heritage project, and when it reopens in 2024, the museum will celebrate Paisley’s unique history, while being a new community space open to all.

It’s being led by our colleagues at OneRen and is the flagship project in our wider investment in the town’s historic cultural venues, aimed at driving new visitors and footfall to the area.

You can see here how the new-build extension to the side of the main museum building is coming together.

There are also some artist’s impressions we haven’t shared on here before, showing how that section and the outdoor areas around it will look once finished.

Here’s what’s being built, and what you can expect once the museum reopens:

• repairs to the outside of all A-listed museum buildings

• a total redesign of the inside, while preserving its unique historic architectural features

• a new-build extension, home to a new garden gallery, café, shop, and community spaces

• a terraced public courtyard and gardens, offering a space to host outdoor events, and allowing views from the High Street up to the Coats Observatory

• a red glass museum entrance, leading to new lifts, allowing step-free access to all floors of the museum buildings

• an increase in gallery space, allowing more than twice as many objects from the area’s collections to go on display than ever before

• an estimated 125,000 visitors a year, bringing new footfall to local traders and the wider area

Of course, the museum will be about much more than the building—it will bring to life the stories of how Paisley, its people and the Paisley Pattern reached around the world.

The team behind the museum have placed the local community at the heart of the work to do that. Here, Kirsty Devine, OneRen’s Project Director for Paisley Museum, explains how.

“Our ambition is to create a world-class museum space. We can’t do that alone though and we have been working with a wide range of communities—locally and globally—over the past six years to help reimagine and redefine the museum and our collections.

“We’ve held conversations with around 70 local organisations and community groups who have brought fresh and dynamic insights into the role of the museum and what people want to see.

“We’re building a museum that is engaged with its communities in a way that will continue long after we re-open our doors. This represents a real shift in practice for us and it’s one which will build a real sense of ownership and pride as we move forward. That, for me, is incredibly exciting.”

The museum refurbishment is being funded by us, the Scottish Government, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland, as well as a charitable fundraising campaign supported by a number of trusts, foundations and corporate donors.

It’s part of our much wider investment in the town’s historic cultural venues, which also includes the work to turn Paisley Town Hall into a landmark entertainment venue—due to reopen this year, to build a new home for library services in a formerly empty unit at the heart of the High Street, and an upgrade to Paisley Arts Centre.

Thanks to OneRen for providing the photos and artist impressions and to Kirsty for talking to us about the project.