The awards are given to projects which explore creativity

Eight artists have received �30,000 each from the Scottish Arts Council's Creative Scotland Awards 2004.

One winner, Zoe Irvine, plans an opera based on telephone conversations.

The other recipients were artists Doug Cocker and Alison Watt, musicians Edward McGuire, Chick Lyall and Tom Bancroft, sculptor David Swift and playwright David Greig.

Congratulating the recipients at The Hub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, James Boyle, said: "It's a real privilege to be in the company of these artists and to be part of Europe's most valuable and prestigious arts awards."

I will be able to do a project that I just never would have been able to do Zoe Irvine

Fife-based Zoe Irvine's project, which caught the eye of the judging panel, is to compose a libretto based on genuine telephone conversations overheard in public.

Working in collaboration with the Paragon Ensemble and Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, the finished musical piece will then act as a background to a gallery art installation which she herself will also create.

Ms Irvine, 31, said: "The first major benefit of this funding is that I will be able to do a project that I just never would have been able to do, and I get to work with some fantastic people.

"It has also struck me that I have financial security for two years, which is great because I live a very itinerant life and sometimes there just isn't enough work going about."

The Creative Scotland Awards were first presented in 2000 and 60 awards have been made since then, at a total cost of over �1.5m.

The funding is for artists who have a significant record of achievement and who live and work in Scotland.