More than 50 artists, film makers, playwrights and musicians will receive financial support from the national arts funding body, Creative Scotland, in its new round of bursaries.

Figures including playwright and poet Iain Heggie, and artists Roderick Buchanan and Torsten Lauschman have received bursaries from the body.

The new round of funds stem from the October deadline for applications, with nearly 300 artists applying for the grants, which range between £5000 and £30,000.

The total requested from the Artists' Bursaries programme was more than £3.5 million, with 55 awards made, totalling £500,000.

Glasgow-based Buchanan, has been awarded £30,000 for "new work in film that will explore how two contemporary Scottish communities want to maintain a stake in the meaning and interpretation of their own history".