IT will be the most extensive contemporary art show ever staged in Scotland, involving more than 100 artists, 60 galleries, thousands of works of art and a budget of £2 million.

The organisers of Generation, next year's major display of the best of Scotland's thriving contemporary art scene from the last 25 years, have revealed most of its line-up.

It will feature exhibitions from Orkney to Dumfries and shows by some of the most acclaimed and successful artists in the nation's recent history.

The series of shows, which will all be free to enter, is also likely to tour abroad. Curators from countries ­including Australia, Brazil and China are already interested in staging selected displays.

Generation, organised by the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums and galleries, will work with the British Council to tour sections of the show.

Supported by a £750,000 grant from Creative Scotland, Generation will run between March and November next year.

It features artists who have helped make Scotland one of the most significant countries for contemporary artists and art.

Six Scottish-linked artists have won the Turner Prize since 1996 and four are featured in the shows, with no place, at this stage, for Martin Creed or Susan Philipsz.

Katrina Brown, an associate curator of the event, said: "This is a first glimpse of the programme. We are still working on shows that will be confirmed early next year, but this gives a sense of the scale and the ambition of the project.

"More than 60 venues is a phenomenal scale. This is not just about Glasgow and Edinburgh, it is about the whole country.

"The programme is intended to show some of the momentum that has built up over that 25-year period, a massive transition from a period where artists would start in Scotland but move elsewhere to pursue success. Now there is a disproportionate amount of artists who achieve national and international acclaim in Scotland."

Shows include works by Turner prize winners Douglas Gordon, Richard Wright, Martin Boyce and Simon Starling, as well as exhibitions by the late Steven Campbell, and prize-nominated artists such as Karla Black, Nathan Coley, Cathy Wilkes, David Shrigley, and Christine Borland.

Other notable names to have art in Generation include Alison Watt, Kenny Hunter, Toby Paterson, Torsten Lauschmann, Callum Innes, Lucy Skaer and Grahma Fagen.

The organisers hope that, as well as fans of contemporary art, they can attracts tourists and young people to the shows.

Venues outside Glasgow and Edinburgh include Atlas in the Isle of Skye, Timespan in Helmsdale, Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, The Booth on Shetland, The Pier Arts Centre on Orkney and An Lanntair in Stornoway.

At this stage the show does not feature work by two of Scotland's more high profile painters, Peter Howson and Jack Vettriano.

A source close to the latter said that he did not expect to be included, given the focus of the show was cutting-edge contemporary art.

The shows will feature largely older work plus some new commissions, with major shows at the Royal Scottish Academy building and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One in Edinburgh. There will also be major shows at the Tramway and Goma in Glasgow.

Among the four solo shows being staged at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art are two works never staged in Glasgow.

The first is Douglas Gordon's Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from about 1992 until Now, a comprehensive ­collection of Gordon's work in film and video.

The other is Nathan Coley's The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship - a scale model in cardboard of every Place of Worship listed in the 2004 edition of the Edinburgh Yellow Pages telephone directory.