Paisley’s bid to be UK City of Culture 2021 offers an opportunity to revive and showcase its impressive cultural heritage. Evidence from previous successful bids says it should also be great for local business.
Derry-Londonderry’s successful bid to become UK City of Culture 2013 resulted in a doubling of visitors to the city and boosted the local economy by £47 million.
Since commencing its bid in 2013, 2017 UK City of Culture Hull has seen around 89 city centre businesses either newly created or changing use, resulting in the creation of 550 new jobs. Halfway through the year, more than half of city centre businesses were already reporting positive impacts, be that in terms of increased footfall, more diverse customers, enhanced sales or a generally positive atmosphere in the city.
It is predicted that a successful Paisley UK City of Culture bid will create the equivalent of 4,700 jobs over the next decade and boost the local Renfrewshire economy by £175 million.
Many local businesses are already getting behind the Paisley bid, building on a centuries-old tradition of cultural philanthropy that goes back to the creation of Paisley’s world-famous weaving and textile industries in the mid-18th Century.
By the late 19th Century, the iconic family firms of Coats and Clark employed more than 10,000 people in Paisley. In 1866, Coats co-founder Sir Peter Coats acquired the grounds of Paisley’s Fountain Gardens and redesigned the park before gifting it to the people of Paisley.
In 1870, Sir Peter provided entire funding for the Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, another generous gift to the town. Ambitious £42 million plans were recently unveiled to extend and refurbish the building with a view to reopening in 2022 with £5 million of the funding coming from Heritage Lottery Fund.
In 1880, a partnership between the Paisley Philosophical Institution and Sir Peter’s younger brother Thomas Coats resulted in the foundation of the Coats Observatory, Scotland’s oldest public observatory.
The legacy of Coats and many other businesses with local roots in the town demonstrates the integral role local business has played in making Paisley what it is today – and that has to be a key strength of Paisley’s bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021.
The bid offers local businesses an amazing business opportunity and backing the bid is about more than supporting cultural endeavour out of a sense of civic responsibility. 150 years ago, the likes of Sir Peter and Thomas Coats were shrewd enough to realise that giving something back to the local community would be good for their business.
Reinforcing that point, a recent public opinion poll commissioned by Arts & Business Scotland found that a majority of Scots would be more likely to buy goods and services from businesses that support cultural projects in their local area.
Arts & Business Scotland exists to promote collaboration between business and the cultural sector through programmes including the Culture & Business Fund Scotland, which matches business sponsorship of cultural projects pound for pound.
By taking advantage of such programmes, Paisley and Renfrewshire’s diverse business community can maximise the benefits of getting behind the bid. Strong local business support will give Paisley the best possible prospects of success – and a successful bid will have a major economic benefit that is bound to be a boon to local businesses in the longer term. But by enhancing their reputation, the immediate benefits to local businesses of actively backing the bid should not be underestimated. It’s not just the right thing to do – put simply, it makes good business sense as well.
David Watt is Chief Executive of Arts & Business Scotland.
