EVERYDAY buildings in a North-East city are set to be transformed by shining artwork and animation.

A special launch event of Shine 2010 - the Urban Gardens arts festival - will be held at the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, at 6pm on Friday. Throughout the 10-day festival, dramatic evening lighting installations will be located around Sunderland city centre and giant art will be projected onto buildings and pavements from 4.30pm to 8pm daily.

Coffee shops nearby the event will stay open late during the festival to allow visitors to grab a hot drink, while taking in the light installations across the city centre.

From the moment people arrive at museum and gardens from Borough Road, they will see, artist, Andrew Richardson’s Wallflowers projection.

Mr Richardson’s work takes inspiration from William Morris’ floral wallpaper designs and will transform the outside of the museum with moving images of plants and flowers.

On entering the Winter Gardens visitors will be taken on magical journey of light and sound that will reveal the secret world of the Winter Gardens at night.

Colour, spirals and LEDs will fill the dome roof and glisten in the evening sky. The structure of the glass dome itself will be illuminated from the exterior and will be visible from miles around, acting as a beacon and drawing people to the light.

Artist Suzie Brown of Urban Bird has produced coloured pillars of light which will lead visitors from Sunderland Museum entrance into the Winter Gardens.

The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art will feature work by North-East artist, Giuseppe Davies, while the City Library and Arts Centre windows showcase pieces by fine art and design students from the University of Sunderland.

The festival is free, but tickets are required for the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens exhibition. They can be obtained at www.sunderlandevents.co.uk or contact Sunderland Tourist Information Centre on 0191-553 2000 or at tourist.info@sunderland.gov.uk .