Scotland’s leading artists have been invited to apply for Scotland’s most prestigious arts awards - the 2006 Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards.

Now in their sixth year, the National Lottery funded Creative Scotland Awards were established to reward, honour and celebrate established artists in Scotland and to raise the profile of the arts and their contribution to Scotland.

The awards are among the richest in Europe with up to ten artists awarded £30,000 each to provide them with a unique opportunity to experiment, refresh and exercise their talent, and to realise imaginative ideas in a major project. They also receive a beautiful glass award created by Scottish glass artist Anita Pate.

The Scottish Arts Council is encouraging artists with a record of major achievement in their field to apply for the 2006 awards which will be presented at the awards ceremony in March 2006.

Graham Berry, chief executive of the Scottish Arts Council said “These awards have raised the profile Scotland’s artists and given them the opportunity to work on a major project within Scotland.  Many of Scotland’s most renowned artists have been past recipients of the awards and the Creative Scotland Awards have made many excellent and innovative projects possible. 

 “We are encouraging artists from all disciplines to apply and we fully expect this year’s applications to present the same high calibre of exciting proposals as we have seen in previous years.”

Previous award winners include glass artist and musician Alison Kinnaird who combined her two specialist areas to create a visual installation, Psalmsong, which has been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and will soon be on exhibition on the Scottish Parliament.
 
Application forms are available by contacting the Scottish Arts Council Helpdesk on 0845 603 6000, e-mail help.desk@scottisharts.org.uk or on the Scottish Arts Council website at www.scottisharts.org.uk.  The deadline for applications is 28 October 2005.