Shedding artistic light on the city of York

Ben Pugh is right when he says that light can transform the way we look at things.

"Even a tree, with a light shining on it at night, can become something quite beautiful," he says.

So imagine just how beautiful something can be when it's not just a light, but an art installation created with light and the object it is shining on is stunning to begin with.

"It sounds like such an obvious thing to say, but the city really is the most wonderful canvas," says Pugh. The York-based freelance producer has been Illuminating York's project manager since it first began six years ago.

The festival grew out of an earlier event in 2003, when the Millennium Commission awarded funding to those UK cities that had bid to be capital of culture, but failed. Bradford was one such city and used the funding to create a Yorkshire wide event, involving five key cities – York, Hull, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford. Illuminating Yorkshire saw these five cities stage a variety of events based around lighting up their cities – and York was both amazed at the success and determined to repeat it.

Since 2005, the city has seen invited artists come to the city and using both light and sound projections, change the way people see York.

The first event proved so successful that a number of organisations came together to make sure that it wouldn't be a one-off and the city would light up again, on a regular basis.

Gill Cooper, head of arts and culture at York City Council, says: "After that first year, we realised it was such a huge success that we really should try to make it a permanent fixture in York's calendar. It has quickly become one of the city's major four festivals, along with the Viking, Food and Drink and Early Music Festivals."

The festival, which costs 120,000 to stage, is funded by a number of partners, including the city council, Arts Council Yorkshire and the tourist boards of both the city and Yorkshire.

Cooper argues it is money well spent on an annual event which has been shown to bring 2m into the local economy, with a significant percentage of the 20,000 annual visitors coming from outside the city.

The festival has already turned several of York's landmarks into works of art; in 2008 the ruined St Mary's Abbey and the Yorkshire Museum became a canvas for Accendo, while 2009 saw the ancient Multangular Tower covered in digitally created projected art, with the Tag Tool by Gaia Nova.

Now in 2010 it is the turn of York Minster to be bathed in light and colour and sound.

This year will see the South Transept of the city's minster and Dean's Park behind the minster play host to stunning, light and sound created artworks. The fringe festival will also see a huge part of the city getting involved with the festival and casting York in a different light.

The major work at this year's festival is Rose, a 10-minute piece which will run on a continuous loop during the festival.

Created by international artists Ross Ashton and Karen Monid, Rose is a light installation created using images from the Minster and museum's archive and will feature a soundtrack of poetry and music.

Monid says the Minster was the perfect inspiration for the artwork. "We've created a piece which is really rich in symbolism," says Monid.

"We have worked on some very big projects, but when you are invited into a space to create something site specific we consider it a real privilege.

"Ross and I were looking at the Minster and the Rose window jumped out at us."

Rose will receive its premiere when the festival begins on Wednesday.

Dean's Park will be turned into a wonderland of light and sound with several small-scale works including Chroma-Van, a re-modelled caravan which allows visitors to bathe in coloured light; The Ice Book a pop-up book that comes to life in front of an audience and Lightweight, a giant sphere which projects images and sound across 360 degrees. The hugely popular interactive Tag Tool, will once again give visitors the chance to be part of the festival.

A full programme of fringe events will take place around the city, including Torchlit tours of several landmarks, a POD Walk, the Creative York Symposium and a Girl Geek Dinner.

Illuminating York, October 27-30, 7pm to 10pm. Various venues. illuminatingyork.org.uk