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Mid Wales artist Eleri Mills is set to raise the profile of Welsh art in America after winning a Creative Wales Ambassador Award, one of 19 prizes worth £330,000 that were handed out by the last night.

The Creative Wales Ambassador Award is made by nomination - in this instance, the . Mills will take residence in a workshop space at the centre in the summer of 2011, and in 2012 she will be a visiting artist at Columbia University, New York. Following this, her work will be featured at the SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) New York 2012 exposition.

In addition to the Ambassador award, Creative Wales Awards of up to £25,000 are available for Welsh artists every year - supported by Arts Council of Wales and Lottery funding.

The winners of the Creative Wales Major Awards (up to £25,000) were: David Cushway, Lowri Davies, and Paul Preston - all Applied Arts & Craft; Sean Edwards, Helen Sear, and Bedwyr Williams - all Visual Arts; Eddie Ladd and Tanja Råman - both Dance; Michael Harvey - Drama; and Wiliam Owen Roberts - Literature.

The Creative Wales Awards (up to £12,000) were awarded to: Lucy Gough, Alan Harris, Philip Ralph and Gerald Tyler - all Drama; Michael Rafferty and James Slater - both Music, Ingrid Murphy - Applied Arts & Craft and Holly Davey - Visual Arts.

The prize giving came on the eve of the draft budget announcement by the Welsh Assembly Government, in which the arts in Wales are expected to face large spending cuts.