Twenty-three of Scotland’s leading writers, visual artists, poets, musicians, dance artists and crafts professionals have been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Creative Scotland Awards.

The £300,000 awards scheme, co-ordinated by the Scottish Arts Council, is one of the richest arts awards programmes in the UK and awards are given to projects that are both inspiring and highly creative.  This year’s awards will be presented at a glittering ceremony in Edinburgh on 16 March 2005.

Graham Berry, Director of the Scottish Arts Council, says: ‘I am delighted by the quality and imagination of the projects shortlisted for this year’s lottery funded Creative Scotland Awards.  The shortlisted artists have already made valuable contributions to the development of their artform in Scotland and we are confident that their proposed projects will have a positive and wide-reaching impact on audiences and other artists, both in Scotland and the rest of the UK.  While other awards schemes offer prizes to artists for a completed piece of work, our Creative Scotland Awards allow artists to devote time to creating a particularly inspirational or innovative piece of work, which will boost their career.’

Through their award, previous recipients have created work that has gone on to win some of the most illustrious prizes available in the UK arts world.  Kathleen Jamie, for example, received a Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award in 2001 to develop a collection of poetry called The Tree House, which won last year’s prestigious Forward prize for Poetry.  Similarly, glass artist Alison Kinnaird won the 2004 Glass Sellers award for her innovative piece of artwork, Psalmsong, which her 2002 Creative Scotland Award allowed her to create and which is now on show at the V&A in London, before being permanently exhibited at the new Scottish Parliament building.

Included in this year’s shortlisted projects are:

• a new collection of poems by Sony award-winning writer Robin Bell, based on his observations of this year’s G8 summit at Gleneagles;
• a series of fictional portrait paintings by Moyna Flannigan of the political dynasty of Bonnie Prince Charlie;
• composer and musician Dave Heath, who proposes to write a chamber opera entitled Everyday Occurrence and to premiere it in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 with the Paragon Ensemble;
• the creation of a 21st century Scottish harp by renowned harp maker Mark Norris, which will change colour and emit computer generated light and images in response to the music being played;
• Russian exile, Eduard Bersudsky, who seeks to collaborate with Russian theatre company Devero Theatre Company to devise a performance entitled The Druid Clock where bodies of dancers would interact with his kinetic sculptures;
• a collection of short stories that explore the nature of contemporary Scotland by Des Dillon, author of the acclaimed 2003 Scottish novel Me and Ma Gal;
• a series of artworks for urban spaces by Louise Scullion, in collaboration with Matthew Dalziel, using titanium dioxide, a new material to the market;
• new sculptural works by renowned artist Claire Barclay, who exhibited at the 2003 Venice Biennale;
• a new orchestral traditional piece by leading Scottish musician Phil Cunningham, written to accompany a silent film compiled from pre-war archive footage of Scotland and Scottish life;
• a collection of poems by Ron Butlin, inspired by paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland;
• new work by visual artist Mandy McIntosh, exploring the fashion industry and large format photography techniques;
• new compositions for piano and percussion by award winning composer John McLeod inspired by a fusion of Scottish folk music and Indonesian gamelan music;
• new and innovative choreography by Janice Parker that is based on the movement qualities of people with learning disabilities;
• a collection of poems by Valerie Gillies inspired by Scotland’s ancient springs and wells;
• a new composition by William Sweeney exploring the sensibility of Scottish musicians of the 1960s who defined their identity through the music of Black America;
• a new musical and dramatic work entitled The Dusk & The Dark by David Paul Jones, exploring classic themes of fear and suspense via the medium of ‘Live Film’ and Sound Installation;
• site-specific projected digital animation and sound works by Minty Donald for two contrasting, yet complementary, architectural sites in Glasgow – Tramway and the Britannia Music Hall;
• an installation piece involving live-source internet material exploring the natural phenomenon of volcanoes by Stephen Hurrel;
• a novel by Ajay Close set in the Borders, exploring people’s relationships with nature and technology;
• work by Anna Krzystek combining live dance performances and video installation;
• a web-based project by Bill Duncan exploring urban mythology of hidden cults in a North East city;
• a photography project by renowned artist Thomas J Cooper of Glasgow School of Art comprising sea pictures made from all the land-based cardinal points surrounding the Atlantic Ocean;
• new video work by performance artist Ken Davidson. 

Graham Berry adds: ‘The shortlisted artists represent only a small cross-section of the strength and depth of imagination and skill which exists in Scotland’s artists today.  These awards continue to encourage artists to extend their talent and collaborate and share their work with the public.’