INTRODUCTION
Scottish artist Joe Hargan was born in 1952 in Glasgow. He studied Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1970 – 74 under Danny Ferguson RSW. RGI., James Robertson RSW. RGI. RSA. PAI. and Dr David Donaldson RSA. RGI. D.LITT (Queen’s Limner). A well recognised and respected figure on the Scottish art scene, Joe has been the recipient of numerous awards, from the Glasgow School of Art Painting Prize back in 1972, the Royal Scottish Academy Maude Gemmell Hutchison Award in 2002 and more recently the Paisley City of Culture Bid Award in 2021. And plenty of others in between. Joe is from a generation of artists who value their own work as part of a bigger picture; a generation that recognises the important role that regional and national arts bodies can play in the encouragement of young talent and the development of professional artistic careers. With a sense of responsibility and reciprocity, Joe has worked tirelessly over the years to protect and promote the visual arts for the artists and public of today, as much as those of tomorrow. These values, coupled with his great aptitude for paperwork and deciphering legalese, have resulted in his frequent election to leadership roles within art institutions. Among many other leadership positions over the years, Joe has been President and Chairman of the Paisley Art Institute from 1989 - 2000 and President of the Glasgow Art Club from 2017- 2020, again returning to the Presidency of the Paisley Art Institute in 2022 (ongoing). The last few years have been a challenging time for Joe and many others, and a legal battle with Renfrewshire Council surrounding the future of the Paisley Art Institute’s building, exhibition spaces and its large £4 million collection of Scottish paintings, has taken up a lot of his time and energy. Joe has been at the centre of all of this, working round the clock to ensure that the permanent collection and the contemporary annual exhibitions have a future, and most importantly, that the young artists of tomorrow have some of the same opportunities that he and his peers have had in the past.
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