A UNIQUE Japanese exhibition is to be launched in Blackburn as cultural chiefs try to put the town on the art world map.

The Parallel Realities: Asian Art Now exhibition has been shipped across from the Japanese town of Fukuoka, where it was spotted by Blackburn Museum's curator during a holiday in 2003.

The exhibition is made up of works of art from 21 countries across Asia which were assembled in Fukuoka by regeneration chiefs who hoped art would attract more people to the town.

The exhibition which includes digital art, sculpture, games, comic strips, photography, film, painting and craft attracted visitors from across the globe.

Now, using a £1million fund which came from the Lottery-funded Millennium Commission, regeneration grants and council coffers Blackburn with Darwen Council has brought it to East Lancashire.

It is the first time the 100-artefact exhibition has left Japan and it will be split up around various sites, including Blackburn Museum, Ewood Park, Blackburn Visitor Centre, Blackburn Cathedral and the old Halifax Building Society office in Lord Square, Blackburn.

The exhibition will be the focal point of the year-long C21 project, which has celebrated art throughout in Blackburn since May.

Blackburn Museum curator Paul Flintoff, said: "I instantly thought how good it would be to bring it to Britain, but it was one of those ideas I thought would never happen.

"When the opportunity came to get urban cultural funding this idea was still in my head. I thought how it would be so appropriate for Blackburn because of our connection with Asia.

"The Millennium Commission gave us £500,000 which paid for the whole thing. That seems like an awful lot of money but it's amazing how it goes. Transportation of the pieces alone has cost us £150,000.

"This is the sort of thing that they might do in a gallery in central London.

"Fukuoka and Blackburn have some incredible similarities. They have had a recession and as a former industrial town the people were having to deal with the same issues as us.

"They worry about work, about redundancy, about making ends meet."

Blackburn-born Wayne Hemingway, founder of Red or Dead, said: "There's no doubt that over the last few years Blackburn with Darwen has been changing for the better.

"There's great creative potential waiting to be released and I hope C21 will encourage people to express themselves through art based projects and activities."