A new magazine to promote the strength and diversity of Scotland's contemporary visual arts scene will soon appear on newsstands worldwide.

Thanks to a three-year investment from the Scottish Arts Council, totalling £170,000, the publishers of Scotland's leading arts and entertainment magazine The List will launch a new visual arts magazine at the end of the summer.

Editorially independent, the magazine will be in a 'compact' format (similar to the women's monthly Glamour magazine) and published four times a year. The first issue is expected in September.

The magazine forms part of the Scottish Arts Council's Visual Arts team's aim to raise the profile of contemporary visual art through a range of initiatives, including support for Glasgow Art Fair, investment in artists' studio space, the Real Art Weekend and a soon-to-be available leaflet;How to Buy Art.

Graham Berry, Director of the Scottish Arts Council also welcomed the new magazine, adding: 'This new publication will also be a conduit for new ideas and approaches to art, within a wide, international context.

'Scotland's visual artists have a well-deserved worldwide reputation for the strength and diversity of their work, which we believe deserves better promotion. As well as providing a visual feast for audiences, the magazine will provide support to artists working here by bringing their work to a wider audience and provide a new resource for curators internationally. I'm delighted that the expert, and passionate, team at The List are leading the way and I look forward to the first issue'.

Robin Hodge, publisher of The List, said: 'The magazine's remit will simply be to publish the very best of the ideas that are influencing art in Scotland. With excellent production values, it will aim to evaluate art from Scotland alongside the best art from elsewhere.

'Art from Scotland currently gets a better press in New York, London and Berlin than it does here, and we aim to change that.'

The magazine will take an in-depth look at the art which is really making a difference in Scotland. More than 30 publishers from all over Britain expressed an interest in producing the new magazine when the tender was advertised.

Nick Barley, editor of The List, said: 'This is a highly ambitious project: we aim to match the standards of the best artists from Scotland in the pages of the magazine. In order to do this, it will run with its own dedicated editorial team. We aim to recruit an editor over the coming month, and we want to develop of a new breed of writers who can write clearly and perceptively about art.'

Priced £4.95, the magazine will be distributed throughout Scotland, and also in selected art bookshops all over the world. One issue per year will be distributed as a supplement to The List, and be made available at a substantial discount for a two-week period to others in Scotland outside The List's distribution area in the central belt.

In addition to the magazine, a further £30,000 will be allocated towards the launch of a new website, including news and arts listing for the whole of Scotland.