THE man who was director of Glasgow as European City of Culture in 1990 is believed to have won the race to be the new chief executive of Scotland's beleaguered national arts body.
Robert Palmer was understood to have been ratified for the appointment by a board meeting of Creative Scotland in Dumfries.
The organisation has been without a chief executive since Andrew Dixon resigned in December last year after sustained criticism of his leadership of the quango from the arts community in Scotland.
He also appeared to have lost the support of Holyrood Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
Glasgow's exploitation of the 1990 title is credited with having changed the status and purpose of such awards, putting the regeneration of cities through culture expenditure on the international agenda.
Mr Palmer, who was director of the year of culture, has spent most of his career in Europe since the post.
Mr Palmer had run the Theatre Workshop in Edinburgh and served as drama director with the Scottish Arts Council before being appointed to the City of Culture post. He was associated with bringing a rich programme of international theatre to the city in the years leading up to 1990 and during the year itself.
He went on to run the European Cultural Capital year of Brussels in 2000 and become Director of Culture and Natural Heritage at the Council of Europe from 2004 to 2012 after writing a major study on European Capitals of Culture for the European Commission. Most recently he established his own consultancy and has been a regular presence on arts juries and at cultural conferences.
The Creative Scotland board appointed a firm of headhunters, Badenoch and Clark, and an independent recruitment panel in the process of finding a successor for Mr Dixon.
The panel included writer Janice Galloway and former head of the National Theatre of Scotland Vicky Featherstone, both of whom joined the chorus of criticism of the quango. The deadline for applications for the £110,000 a year post closed at the start of last month and the panel interviewed candidates on April 23 and 24.
Although around 100 applications for the job were received, it is understood only a small proportion of that number were selected for interview.
There was no confirmation of the appointment from Creative Scotland last night and Mr Palmer could not be contacted.
However, a senior figure in Scottish theatre who had worked closely with him said the news would be widely welcomed by the arts community, because of his reputation and long knowledge of the wide range of the arts.
