EDINBURGH.- Edinburgh Art Festival has received money from the Scottish Government Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund to establish a commissioning fund for new work by Scottish visual artists.

Announcing this year's Expo Fund allocation, Minister for Culture Michael Russell said 'Edinburgh's Festivals continue to create a unique showcase promoting the best of Scottish work to an international audience. Part of the allocation includes an award of £250,000 to the Edinburgh Art Festival over two years’

Mr Russell added: "This project will allow new creative and imaginative collaborations, promoting Scotland's international reputation as a flourishing centre for the visual arts."

The successful projects for 2010 will be announced during the 2009 Edinburgh Art Festival.

The great achievement of the Edinburgh Art Festival to date is its success in bringing the very different components of Edinburgh's visual art sector together. Not just for the month of August, but across 12 months of the year. There is, in the world of artists and galleries, a much greater possibility for communication and collaboration than ever before. The Festival was established by Edinburgh’s galleries, working together, to create something that would be greater than the sum of its parts and over the next 5 years it will continue it’s mission to move visual art centre stage in the city’s consciousness, and to move Edinburgh onto the map of Europe’s visual art cities.

The message of confidence and opportunity that the Expo Fund brings will help the Edinburgh Art Festival take a very important step forward.