Alfie Dennen and Paula Le Dieu

The 12 Artists Taking The Lead commissions – worth up to £500,000 – have been announced and ,against the odds, there are some exciting prospects. FACT in Liverpool will be working with New York based British artists Anthony McCall, who will create Projected Column, a slender, sinuous, spinning column of cloud rising into the sky from the surface of the water in Birkenhead’s disused Morpeth dock. McCall is a legendary figure, famous for his incredible light and smoke installation Line Describing A Cone (1973).

And talking of legends, the Brothers Quay will be artistic directors for Leeds  Canvas, a consortium project that will be centred around the Dark Arches – an enclosed area underneath Leeds station. There’ll be a month-long series of interventions, including fragments of film and sound and movement in unexpected places throughout the city, followed by week-long installations, building up to a large-scale one night event on the waterfront.

And in London, Alfie Dennen and Paula Le Dieu will present Bus-Tops – displaying work created by the public on LED panels on the roofs of 40 bus shelters across the London boroughs. For the lowdown on all twelve commissioned projects  (and a chance to read dissenting opinions as to who should have gotten greenlit) check the website.