By PHIL MILLER

A NEW festival of experimental art to carry on the legacy of the Arches which shut amid controversy last year has been backed by nearly £100,000 in arts funds.

The arts and club venue shut in 2015 after council licensing chiefs curtailed its licensed hours following Police Scotland concern over drug use at the site.

Now Creative Scotland, the nation's main arts funding body, has given £99,000 to Take Me Somewhere, a festival of "contemporary experimental performance" in the spirit of many of the acclaimed performances held at The Arches, which will be held in venues across Glasgow in 2017.

Creative Scotland said the festival will "build on" the work of the venue under Central Station, which is currently vacant and with no imminent prospect of re-opening.

Jackie Wylie, former artistic director of The Arches, said: "This support from [Creative Scotland's] Open Fund will allow us to pilot a new way of working across venues in Glasgow and beyond and we're delighted to have such fantastic collaborative support from Scotland's cultural organisations.

"We hope that this introductory programme in 2017 will develop in the future into a focal point for our incredible contemporary performance community and we can't wait to share this first outing with Glasgow's audiences next year."

The festival will aim to "take audiences beyond The Arches to somewhere new, whilst providing a crucial support structure to Scotland's most innovative and exciting community of artists and makers", a funding outline said.

Creative Scotland has announced £900,000 in funding for 41 projects.

Grants ranged between £1000 and £130,000.

In literature, awards have been made to writers Janice Galloway, Robin Lloyd-Jones and Kathleen Jamie for the development of new work while StAnza International Poetry Festival in St Andrews has received funding towards its 2017 and 2018 festivals.

Eleanor Livingstone, Festival Director at StAnza said: “I am delighted that thanks to this [£130,000] funding we shall now be able to press on with exciting plans which will see StAnza moving ahead into our third decade of celebrating and promoting poetry to festival audiences and within the local community.

"We’re just announcing our themes for StAnza 2017, our 20th annual festival, in which we’ll be considering poetry On the Road and The Heights of Poetry.

"We’re all thrilled that our headline poets next March will include the new Scottish Makar, Jackie Kay.”

Scottish Historic Buildings Trust has received funding for a project to create a new piece of public art to "reflect the values of Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer and philanthropist Patrick Geddes around the restored Riddle’s Court in Edinburgh’s Old Town."

New Glasgow-based theatre company Blood of the Young have received £65,000 funding for a new touring production Daphne Oram’s Wonderful World of Sound.

Paul Brotherston, artistic director of Blood of the Young, said: “Receiving funding from Creative Scotland has allowed us to pull together an ensemble cast and creative team capable of developing an ambitious piece of work, as well as facilitating creation of our live sound score - composed and performed by Anneke Kampman of Conquering Animal Sound.”

Gaelic musician Maeve MacKinnon has received funding towards her third solo album Songs of Work and Exile.

Ms MacKinnon said: "My third album concentrates on songs of work and exile, predominantly in Gaelic.

"Gaelic waulking songs have always been my big love.

"I’ve been very lucky to have had access to some great tradition bearers over the years as well as the School of Scottish Studies, and Tobar an Dualchais. The idea behind the new album is really to go back to where it all started for me with the love of these songs."

Iain Munro, deputy chief executive at Creative Scotland said: "From new public art works, support for festivals, to the creation of new work by established and emerging artists, we are delighted to have been able to fund such a range of practice through Open Project Funding.

“Open Project Funding supports individual artists and organisations to develop and deliver arts and creative projects, widen access to their work, and enrich Scotland’s reputation as a distinctive creative nation."