ART lovers in the North-East will soon be able to enjoy some of the finest works from the National Gallery's collection without leaving the region.

Masterpieces are to be shown outside London on a regular basis under a new partnership scheme between the National Gallery, the Laing Art Gallery, in Newcastle, and Bristol Museums and Art Gallery.

Most of the works will come from the National Gallery, but there will also be important loans from the collections at Newcastle and Bristol.

The project has been awarded a grant of £365,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, under the Museum and Galleries Access Fund.

It will last four years and will enable Bristol and Newcastle to co-curate two exhibitions each in collaboration with the National Gallery.

The first exhibition, Light, will be curated jointly by the National Gallery and the Laing and will be open at Newcastle next April.

It will involve 20 pictures and will look at how artists have dealt with light in their paintings to create meaning, express emotion and represent different effects.

They will include The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Rembrandt.