A playground in the east end of Glasgow, a one-off operatic performance at the city's Mitchell Library, and a strong year for female artists are notable features of this year's Turner Prize short list.

The 16-strong artist collective Assemble, Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers are on the short list of the leading contemporary art prize for 2015.

This year the prize, which has been very successful for Scottish or Scotland-based artists in the last twenty years, is being staged in Glasgow for the first time, at the Tramway venue.

However, although it includes two projects conceived in the city, the shortlist for the £40,000, oft-controversial prize, does not feature any Scottish or Scotland-based artists for the first time since 2004.

Jury member Alistair Hudson, director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art said the jury had simply chosen the best and most exciting works of the year.

Hudson, who said this year's short list shows artists engaging directly and politically with the world around them, said: "That is just the way it shook out - the way artists work is here, there and everywhere, and you can look at how artists are connected to places in all kinds of ways.

"But Assemble came to our attention through the Baltic Street playground and Janice Kerbel's show was very much embedded in and came through the Glasgow situation."

Penelope Curtis, director of Tate Britain and chair of the prize, said: "It is ironic, isn't it? But of course it is absolutely not deliberate - we do not tell the jury what to do, and they are just trying to find the very best work.

"It will be a very interesting show for the Tramway to stage, but as the Tramway is a production and theatrical space too, it is probably better placed to show these artists than the Tate."

Last year Duncan Campbell, based in Glasgow, won the prize, the seventh artist with Scottish links to take the prize since 1996.

Assemble, which currently numbers 16 artists, have been short listed for a series of projects which work across art, design and architecture - including the Baltic Street Adventure Playground, a new playground and organisation at 427 Baltic Street, Dalmarnock, in the east of Glasgow - and have been short listed specifically for an ongoing collaboration with the Granby Four Streets project in Liverpool.

Another Glasgow-based work, the operatic work DOUG is part of the portfolio that led to the inclusion of Janice Kerbel.

Kerbal's work was commissioned by The Common Guild of Glasgow and performed at the Mitchell Library to an audience of 100 in May last year.

DOUG takes the form of nine songs for six voices as is expected to be performed again for the Turner Prize show.

Kerbel, 45 and based in London, was born in Canada in 1969 and was trained in Canada and at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Bonnie Camplin has been short listed for the The Military Industrial Complex at South London Gallery.

Camplin's work takes the form of drawing, film, performance, music and writing.

Nicole Wermers, perhaps the most traditional show of the short listed artists, was short listed for her exhibition Infrastruckur at Herald Street, London.

She creates sculptures, collages and installations.

Wermers was born in Germany in 1971 and lives and works in London.

The Turner Prize award is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists.

An exhibition of work by the four shortlisted artists will be free and will run from October 1 to January 17 2016 at Tramway, Glasgow.

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on December 7.