International ambitions for Creative Scotland

2012 has been named The Year of Creative Scotland and will see £6.5m invested in cultural events and festivals celebrating creativity across the country. It aims to place Scotland in the global spotlight and has a particular focus on cultural tourism, including collaborations between the tourism and culture sectors. Traquair House in the Scottish Borders will host a celebration of contemporary Scottish printmaking in partnership with Edinburgh Printmakers to introduce contemporary printmaking to a wider audience and support tourism development in the area; the City of Literature Trust will use dynamic building-sized projections to light up the streets of Edinburgh with material from the Scottish Enlightenment period; a bespoke train service, the RockNess Express, will take visitors to the annual RockNess festival from Kings Cross station featuring on-board music and Scottish food and drink; and Scotland’s largest traditional music festival, Celtic Connections, will go to Chicago to showcase Scottish music and attract international visitors to Celtic Connections 2013. The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative led in partnership by EventScotland, VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and VOCAL. Arts organisations in Scotland can apply to be featured in the Partner Events Programme, which enables event organisers to be promoted alongside other major events and activities taking place across the country throughout the Year. The national tourism body VisitScotland will be specially promoting the Year to the UK and international tourism trade and UK travellers.