Artists Taking the Lead for London 2012

The Scottish Arts Council has joined forces with the other UK arts councils in an exciting new artist-led public art project to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  

Artists Taking the Lead is a UK-wide £5.4m competition for the cultural Olympiad which will create 12 major public art projects in 12 places across the UK (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the nine English regions). The search is on for artists from a variety of disciplines to submit their ideas on how they would rise to the challenge of using the nation as a blank canvas and create a public art project to showcase the best of our nation's creativity to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games across the UK.

The Scottish Arts Council has committed £500k of National Lottery funds to support a commission in Scotland, which will see one artist’s (or artists’ collective) idea become a reality. The first stage of the application process is really simple: you have 400 words to tell us your idea. The ideas will then be reviewed by a panel of artists and experts who will select a shortlist of three to five projects for further development.

The final project is expected be selected from those shortlisted in Autumn 2009 and the work should be ready in time for the Games in 2012.

You can submit your idea on line at www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk where you will also find more information about the programme.