UK set for art attack

The Year of the Artist scheme brings art to the masses

Artists are uniting for an ambitious project to bring art to the nation.

The Year of the Artist, launched on Tuesday, aims to raise the profile of living artists through a series of events throughout the UK.

Regional arts councils have been given more than £5m to co-ordinate projects involving at least 1,000 artists in at least 1,000 unusual places to raise the profile of the UK's artistic talent.

There is bound to be an artist's project that will warm the heart

David Johnston, Arts2000

Painters, sculptures, performers and musicians are being invited to bring their art out of studios and theatres into public spaces, office blocks and factory floors.

The launch of the Year of the Artist marks the culmination of the Arts Council's year-long Arts 2000 series of celebrations, designed to highlight all areas of creativity over the millennium period.

Groundbreaking

"Whatever the weather this summer, there is bound to be an artist's project that will warm the heart," said Arts 2000 chief executive David Johnston.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for people to enjoy art in unusual locations, so harness your holiday spirit and combine sightseeing with art."

Punctum: Noam Chomsky teams up with Brian Eno for musical project

Projects range from the creation of a 40ft willow sculpture of a man alongside the M5 motorway in Somerset to a touring horse and cart mobile art gallery.

One of the most groundbreaking individual projects will be Punctum, to be broadcast in 30 three-minute slots on Radio Lincolnshire.

Pop music pioneer Brian Eno and anthropologist Noam Chomsky aim to compose a musical score by imagining the rhythm or emotional emphasis given to punctuation marks in specific pieces of great literature.

A Punctum translation of the work of Alfred Lord Tennyson will form the basis of the first of the broadcasts.

Year of the artists:

Internet users can watch a family trapped in a caravan for a week

Catch of the Day project involves ten fish and chip shops

US Air Force joins the Forestry Commission for a play about UFOs in Norfolk

An actor will use a waiting room at Birmingham New Street station as a bedsit for four weeks.

Other media organisations opening their doors to artists will include BBC Radio Four, whose Today programme will play host to sound artist Kate Tierney, creator of a specially-commissioned installation for The Lux in London's Hoxton Square.

The Guardian will be continuing its ongoing support for Streets Alive, a theatre company whose productions are created and performed by homeless people.

BBC Radio 1 will welcome artist and composer Charles Kriel into its studios for a year to reflect and interpret all of the shows, interviews, live sessions and concerts that take place.

Regional centres in which other activities are taking place include Cambridge, Leicester, Nottingham, Sunderland, Oxford and Bristol.