Twenty of Scotland’s leading writers, musicians, visual artists, film makers, dance artists and digital media artists have been shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Council’s Creative Scotland Awards.

A musical realisation of the final letters of Vincent Van Gogh, a sculptural work examining the monster within the Scottish psyche and an interactive website for all ages are among the projects that have been shortlisted for the awards which provide £30,000 for up to 10 artists with a record of major achievement to experiment, refresh and exercise their talent and realise imaginative ideas in a major project.

The shortlist was selected by a panel of expert assessors and staff from the Scottish Arts Council, chaired by Edinburgh International Festival Director, Jonathan Mills. Members of the panel include Director of Schoolhouse Management and former Simple Minds Manager Bruce Findlay, Curator of Glasgow International and Acting Head of CCA Francis McKee and film-maker Murray Grigor who received a Creative Scotland Award last year.

The panel will reconvene in February and the final 10 award recipients will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony in Edinburgh in March.

The Creative Scotland Awards were established in 2000 to reward, honour and celebrate established artists and help raise the profile of the arts and their contribution to Scotland. Previous award recipients include David Swift whose collaboration with filmmaker Jonathan Charles, Nocturne in Sea Shark; a ten minute animation that brings carved and painted surreal toys to life though animation, premiered at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney in June 2006 and was later screened to a packed audience at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and writer and poet Robin Bell who last year published his book, How To Tell Lies - The G8 Handbook, a collection of poems based on his observations of the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

Graham Berry, Chief Executive of the Scottish Arts Council said: ‘The Creative Scotland Awards are extremely important as they provide artists with a unique opportunity to experiment, develop new skills and realise creative ideas in a major project.

‘This year’s list of exciting and innovative projects demonstrates the strength of creativity in Scotland and I would like to congratulate the shortlisted artists and wish them well as they progress to the next stage.’

Festival Director and Chair of the Creative Scotland Awards panel, Jonathan Mills added: 'I would like to congratulate all the shortlisted artists for the Creative Scotland Awards. There is a diversity of ideas which is enormously encouraging and demonstrates the vibrancy of the creativity of contemporary Scotland. Art helps to define a nation and it is important to support Scotland's creative artists.'

The 20 shortlisted artists are as follows:

Peter Arnott (Glasgow)
Project: A trilogy of plays about how we can live while we’re waiting for the End of the World.

Ian Smith (Glasgow)
Project: To develop a multi-media performance lecture based on the significant mischief making artist of the past 150 years.

Linda Cracknell (Aberfeldy, Perthshire)
Project: To write a collection of ‘Journey-essays’ recounting walks which follow human resonances in wild landscapes.

Margaret Elphinstone (Glasgow)
Project: A story of Mesolithic hunter gatherers on Scotland’s west coast in two parallel narratives.

Jonathan Falla (Cupar, Fife)
Project: ‘Wooden Baby’ a novel about war and the healing power of civilisation, witnessed by French Renaissance essayist Michel de Montaigne.

Annie Griffin (Edinburgh)
Project: To write a children’s book, in collaboration with Laura Ford.

Tom Pow (Dumfries)
Project: Dying Villages – poems and prose pieces which explore the cultural and natural ecology of dying villages in Europe.

Ged Brockie (Edinburgh)
Project: A tapestry of musical threads from Scotland and Spain, woven into a collection of instrumental works titled Alba Cante.

John Maxwell Geddes (Glasgow)
Project: To write music for a professional ensemble.

John McLeod (Edinburgh)
Project: Letters from Provence – a musical realisation of the final letters of Vincent Van Gogh.

Simon Thoumire (Biggar, Lanarkshire)
Project: To write a symphonic work based on Robert Burns’ burlesque on rural, outdoor, communion festivals, ‘The Holy Fair’.

Henry Coombes (Glasgow)
Project: To develop and research an arts based feature length script Little Dog Boy and to produce a short film – Coleus in Clay.

Kenny Hunter (Glasgow)
Project: To produce a large sculptural work examining the monster within the Scottish psyche.

Mandy McIntosh (Glasgow)
Project: To produce an unsanitised remake of the 1957 version of Animal Farm incorporating paintings by animals.

Ross Sinclair (Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire)
Project: To research, develop, produce and exhibit a series of portraits from a 300 year history of popular Scottish music.

Lucy Skaer (Glasgow)
Project: To develop new public works to be distributed as free unlimited edition posters.

Simon Yuill (Glasgow)
Project: Social artwork created through a network of personal exchanges between local communities in the Highlands.
Anna Krzystek (Glasgow)
Project: To develop a series of movement studies looking at poetics and politics of performance.

May M Thomas (Edinburgh)
Project: An interactive website for all ages, The Devil’s Plantation unravels Glasgow’s secret geometry, retracing ancient paths.

Clea Wallis (Huntly, Aberdeenshire)
Project: To collaborate with six Argentinean ‘Milongueros’ on a full length film to be shown in Scottish social clubs, ballrooms and other venues.