THE director of one of the UK's major art institutions, Tate Britain, has said the prospect of Scottish independence will lead to a rethink of the leading contem-porary art award, the Turner Prize.

Penelope Curtis said the potential Yes vote in next year's referendum is also leading the museum, one of the major art institutions in London, to consider changing both its name and its collecting policy.

She said the rules governing the prestigious £40,000 annual prize, which officially goes to a "British artist under the age of 50" will have to be discussed in the event of Scottish independence.

However, she said that she hoped anyone with a UK passport would be able to take part in the often controversial prize in the future.

Ms Curtis, who is also chairwoman of the prize, said: "We are called Tate Britain - will we have to change our name?

"So we are thinking about this issue in bigger ways than just the Turner Prize.

"In the past the collection [at the Tate] is British, but it is very English and London-centric.

"There has been a tradition that the national galleries in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh would primarily collect their national collections.

"We would have to think about changing our collection policy, and also our name, depending on what happens next year.

"I guess we will have to see how it goes: we will only know once the vote has been taken, and then we will have to work things out."

The Turner Prize show is to be held in Glasgow, at the Tramway, in 2015 and this week its annual exhibition was unveiled in Derry-Londonderry.

It features art work from four finalists; Laure Prouvost, Tino Sehgal, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and the Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley.

If Shrigley, who trained at Glasgow School of Art, wins, he will be the seventh artist with Scottish links to take the prize since 1996.

However Ms Curtis said that discussions will be held over how the award, which has been an institution in contemporary art since it began in 1984, would be run if Scotland becomes independent.

She added: "Hopefully the Turner Prize can carry on representing Britain, as a geographic entity.

"It will be interesting to see what happens when it goes to Glasgow.

"We have always had a mix of strict and elastic rules.

"This year, Laure Prouvost and Tino Sehgal are not strictly British, although Mr Sehgal has a UK passport and Laure [who is French] has lived in the UK for many years, so we have always allowed people from outside to be part of it, and anyone who has a British passport is naturally part of it.

"There are lot of things, that a lot of people have to work through about this."

Ms Curtis would not be drawn on potential changes.

This year's show is being held at the former British army barracks on the Ebrington site in Derry-Londonderry, which is the UK City of Culture for 2013. The winner of the prize will be announced at an awards ceremony on December 2.

Douglas Gordon was the first Scottish winner of the prize in 1996, and since then there has been much success for Scottish-based or trained artists.

Martin Creed, who grew up outside Glasgow, won in 2001 and Simon Starling, who trained in Glasgow, won in 2005.

From 2009 to 2011 there was a hat trick of Scottish success, with Richard Wright, Susan Philipsz and Martin Boyce winning.

Shrigley told The Herald this week that he feels he does not have a chance of winning the award, and says the favourite is Sehgal.

Shrigely's show features his Life Model, an animatronic figure which occasionally blinks and pees into a metal bucket. Visitors to the show can draw the model, and art materials are provided.

l Shrigley has announced his support for Impact Arts' project The Young Gallery, Scotland's first gallery dedicated to showcasing children's artwork.