Twenty two of Scotland's leading artists have been shortlisted for this year's Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards.

Musicians, new media artists, writers, visual artists and poets are among the shortlist for the prestigious lottery-funded awards which were initiated in 2000 to reward, honour and celebrate Scotland's leading artists and help raise the profile of the arts by providing up to 10 of Scotland's most talented artists with £30,000 to realise their creative ideas in a major project.

Simon Fildes from Nairn is just one of the artists shortlisted for this year's awards with his project, Crux: a touring exhibition of video dances and large-scale prints from a Laban-based bouldering notation system.

Previous award recipients include poet Kathleen Jamie whose collection of poems 'The Tree House' won the Forward Prize for poetry in 2004 and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year in 2005 and novelist Bernard MacLaverty who used his 2003 award to direct a short film based on Seamus Heaney's 'Bye Child' poem which was later nominated for a BAFTA.

This year's awards panel, chaired by Leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell, includes Director of the Fruitmarket Gallery Fiona Bradley and Associate Director (New Work) at the National Theatre of Scotland John Tiffany as well as a number of previous Creative Scotland Award recipients, including composer Sally Beamish and new media artist Zoë Irvine who launched her Creative Scotland project, Dial-a-Diva, before Christmas. The panel will announce the recipients of this year's awards at a ceremony in Glasgow in March.

Commenting on being shortlisted Simon Fildes said: "I am absolutely bowled over by being shortlisted for the Creative Scotland Awards and I feel it is a fantastic endorsement of the work I have been doing over the past decade or so. I really hope I get the award and get to do the project which is something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now."

Graham Berry, Chief Executive of the Scottish Arts Council said: "The Creative Scotland Awards provide artists with the opportunity to experiment across artforms, develop new collaborations, expand their skills and realise their creative visions in a major project, helping to raise the profile of the arts in Scotland.

"The calibre of applications this year was of an extremely high standard and it is fantastic to see such a diverse range of projects on the shortlist, demonstrating the strength of artistic talent in this country."