ShowCASe, an exhibition featuring over 150 works of contemporary fine art and craft, has opened in Edinburgh at the City Art Centre and Talbot Rice Gallery.

All the works in the exhibition were acquired by the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) over the past four years on behalf of its member museums.  Critics, curators and collectors are invited by CAS to purchase works on its behalf: their brief is to select work which they believe will make the most significant contribution to UK museum collections.

The exhibition shows young artists at a formative stage of their career alongside those with an established international reputation and offers a rare overview of the quality and diversity of contemporary practice today.

It includes jewellery by Lin Cheung, Nora Fok and Yoko Izawa, tapestry by Jennie Moncur, glass by Colin Reid, Steven Newell and Angela Jarman, ceramics by Caitlin Jenkins, Julian Stair and Kate Malone, silver by Sidsel Dorph-Jenson and Ane Christensen, metalwork by Junko Mori, willow by Christine Joy and handbags by MacGregor & Michael.

The exhibition, ShowCASe: Contemporary Art for the UK is being jointly hosted by the City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE tel 0131 529 3993, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.  The exhibitions are on from 22 January until 12 March 2005 and admission is free.

It is supported by the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and Becks.