Twenty Scottish artists, including Alasdair Gray, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Richard Demarco, have been selected to go through to the final round of the Creative Scotland Awards 2003. The short-list honours a wide range of artists, including architects, designers, writers, poets, musicians, visual artists and filmmakers. Demarco, who has been Director of the Demarco Gallery since 1966 and exhibited at least 38 solo shows, as well as holding a number of board positions, has proposed to collaborate on a new touring exhibition. Meanwhile, writer and painter Alasdair Gray would use the award to restore murals he painted between 1955 and 1975, which he has previously never had the means to do. Visual artist Ian Hamilton Finlay proposes a project close to his home and heart. A resident of Little Sparta since 1966, he would create a 'Grove of Tree Shadows' and two inscribed benches in Little Sparta Garden, as well as establish a trust to continue caring for it. However, up-and-coming talent joins the ranks of established artists this year. Nicola McCartney, who won the TMA Best Children’s Play Award for Lifeboat this year, was selected with her plans to write the first draft of a novel. In addition, sound artist Zoe Irvine, 30, is working towards producing a sound work and publication inspired by the writing of W G Sebald. The selected artists will be invited to submit further proposals for their projects before the ten winners, who will each receive £30,000 in prize money, are announced in March 2003. Graham Berry, Director of the Scottish Arts Council, said although Scottish creativity is recognised abroad, artists rarely achieve recognition in their own nation. ‘The Creative Scotland Awards are intended to restore some balance,’ he commented. ‘We welcome and value the contribution artists make to our lives and our development as a cultural and cultured nation.’ The twenty shortlisted artists include:

Jim Buckley, visual artist/sculptor, Glasgow Will dedicate 12 months to researching major site-specific light-works internationally, to inform the development of a series of major new works in Aberdeen's Castlegate and Clydebank's waterfront.

Richard Demarco, visual artist, Edinburgh Will collaborte with a touring exhibition, relating the newly-acquired Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art collection of Beuys multiples and the Demarco archives to the work of 24 Scottish artists.

Mark Dorrian, architect/visual artist, Edinburgh An installation on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, using digital technology to present a contemporary and critical reworking of Robert Barker's 1787 panorama and Maria Short's 'Popular Observatory' from 1827.

Malcolm Fraser, architect, Edinburgh Fraser, who is Scottish Architect of the year 2002-2003, will reconceive Edinburgh's Grassmarket as a civic art machine.

Robert D Galbraith, writer, Cupar Working on a novel of a young western woman visiting China in the 1930s.

Di Gilpin, designer and hand-knitter, St Andrews Four hand-knitted coats, presented in a constructive, sculptural sense, dressed by a silversmith and a poet, incorporating small sculptures – as part of a subsequent, choreographed piece of dance.

Alasdair Gray, writer/painter, Glasgow To completely restore the murals painted between 1955 and 1975, in the Scottish Russian Society, The Tavern, Kirkfieldbank, Greenbank Church of Scotland, Glasgow, as well as to make silkscreen prints based on his book illustrations.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, CBE, visual artist, Little Sparta, Lanark Finlay’s project, 'And longer fall the shadows from the mountain high' will look at creating a Grove of Tree Shadows and two inscribed benches in Little Sparta Garden, and to establish the Little Sparta Trust, to care for the garden, sited collection and public access.

Zoe Irvine, sound artist, Cupar A sound work and publication in which the listener will be taken on a travelogue of the imagination. Inspired by the writing of W G Sebald, it will contain histories, memories, soundscapes, archive material and music.

Brian Kellock, musician/pianist, Edinburgh. Will work on new compositions and arrangements for piano solo and a duet collaboration with David Berkman.

Frank Kuppner, writer, Glasgow Will investigate, contemplate and cultivate the life and work of Thomas Campbell, the Glasgow-born 'Bard of Liberty', whose statue still stands in George Square.

Gerry Loose, writer, Glasgow Loose plans to walk through Nevadan desert, Japan, the Deccan plateau (India), the Pakistan/Indian border and the west coast and islands of Scotland, including the nuclear-sensitive areas, in order to write about the interdependence between landscape, land use and language. Gerry then intends to build a Peace Garden for Scotland, as a physical representation of the links between language, renewal and landscape.

Nicola McCartney, playwright/writer, Glasgow To write the first draft of a novel entitled Ice Angel, a triptych of connected stories set in Russia and Scotland between 1919 and 2004.

Mandy McIntosh, film-maker, Glasgow McIntosh is currently working on NASA-based research into sonic environments in space, a community comic for Castlemilk (as part of the Reputations 2003 project) and animated architectural work with primary school children in Liverpool.

Bernard MacLaverty, writer, Glasgow To direct a short film, based on Seamus Heaney's 'Bye Child' poem, about the tragic story of child neglect brought about by religious taboos and small-mindedness.

Dr Gordon McPherson, composer, Dundee To write a large scale, multimedia investigation for orchestra, film and tape, exploring the phenomena of the paranormal, hauntings and spiritualism.

Richard Meddrington, puppeteer and animator, Edinburgh To develop a piece of animated theatre, featuring puppets and kinetic sculptures, based on the Romanian prison experiences of asylum seeker, Silvui Craciunas.

Mark O'Keeffe, trumpeter, Gartcosh, by Glasgow Apocalypse – a multi-disciplinary performance unveiled in seven tableux using live performance with audio and visual digital media. Collaborating with composer Andrea Haddow and director Cathie Boyd, Mark wishes to develop the visual presentation of music, especially the trumpet.

Colette Sadler, choreographer, Glasgow To further explore and redefine the boundaries between visual art and new dance performance. Taking as themes for investigation the relationship between the body and the performing space, using the mediums of photography and digital technology.

Richard Wright, visual artist, Glasgow A series of six, hand-printed artists' books, with reference to Duchamp's Boite en Valise and the collaborations between poets and artists for the Russian Futurist and Constructivist books of the early 20th century.