FOUR East Lancashire arts projects were today celebrating scooping £53,200 from the Arts Council of England to run exciting millennium festival projects.

Mid Pennine Arts in Burnley, Little World Ltd in Rossendale, Longridge Millennium Committee and Burnley Youth Theatre were among 33 arts projects in the North West to share a total of £643,000.

Each project involves local communities and artists working together to celebrate the millennium, reflecting the rich cultural differences within the North West.

Burnley Youth Theatre has been awarded £13,200 for Spirit, a participatory arts project which reclaims the local legend of Lady Sybil whose appearance every 500 years is said to ensure local prosperity and contentment. Spirit will include the work of youth and community groups, artists and schools, culminating in a large-scale open air performance at Hurstwood Reservoir.

Little World Ltd in Rossendale has received £15,000 for the project Feeding the Dragon. Local schoolchildren and community groups will join with outreach workers to create 600 individually-crafted earth-clay sculptures and pots.

The pieces will ultimately be fired in a constructed wood-fired kiln and will become the centre of a large-scale community arts and entertainment event in November 2000. Longridge Millennium Committee has received £5,000 towards a public art commission by artist Boris Howarth which will mark the new millennium and take a central position in the town.

Mid Pennine Arts has been awarded £20,000 to transform a canal boat into a floating arts centre. The boat, called Focal Point, will travel along the Leeds and Liverpool canal leaving a canalside legacy of sculptures, furniture and markers. The twenty-week project will also include events, performances and educational workshops.

Paul Roots, lottery co-ordinator at North West Arts Board, said: "The Arts Council's Millennium Festival Fund awards will have a real impact on thousands of people across the region.

"Throughout the North West, creative celebrations will range from photography to interactive sculpture. These awards will allow communities and artists to make their own mark and express what the millennium means to them."

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