Creative Scotland has announced the latest round of its National Lottery Open Fund, sharing £1,111,981 among 59 projects across Scotland. The awards support artists and organisations making new work, reaching audiences and developing opportunities in communities across the country and beyond.

Among the funded projects, musicians and sound artists Jenny Sturgeon and Mhairi Hall are creating From the Mountain, an immersive musical journey through the peaks, waters and natural environments of the Cairngorms. Combining their earlier works The Living Mountain and Underwater Cairngorms, the hour-long performance brings together music, literature, history and the natural world, with film by Hannah Bailey. It marks the 50th anniversary of Nan Shepherd's book The Living Mountain and is set to launch in May 2027 before touring Scotland in May and November, with an accompanying album book.

Scots language singer and multidisciplinary artist Quinie is using the fund for Ayeways Changefu, Nanetheless Hale, a project exploring how Scots song traditions evolve. Working with objects connected to a historical site in Perthshire, the artists will create a new body of contemporary Scots song, record an album at An Tobar on Mull for release by Upset the Rhythm, and present the work at Birnam Arts in an exhibition alongside the album launch in late 2028.

The round also supports Open Frequency, a project led by artist and disability advocate Daniel Leckerman that places disabled people's lived experience at the centre of conversations about access in Scotland's music industry. Running from January to May 2027, it will bring together grassroots organisations, artists, promoters and organisers through panels, workshops and creative activities under the banner of The Harmony Dialogue. Creative Scotland's Director of Arts, Paul Burns, said the awards show the breadth of creativity taking place across Scotland and the many ways artists are sharing different experiences and connecting people with the world around them.