A prestigious contemporary art exhibition, which closes today, will only be held every two years in the future, it has been announced.

A top contemporary art exhibition, which closes today, will only be held every two years in the future, it has been announced.

EASTinternational has been running annually in Norwich for the last 17 years, but organisers have made the change because it has become such a big event to pull together.

It has also been announced that the guest curators at the 2009 show will be the curator and artists of Raster Gallery in Warsaw, Poland.

Sue Tuckett, principal of Norwich School of Art and Design (NSAD), which hosts the exhib-ition, said it would not be affected by last month's decision to close the Norwich Gallery.

The gallery, which is part of NSAD, is closing because of the withdraw-al of Arts Council fund-ing - but will continue to be used by the school for the annual graduate show.

Ms Tuckett said: "The decision to make EAST-international biannual is not linked to the Norwich gallery decis-ion. The two-yearly format is a very common format for exhibitions because there is so much to organise."

She said NSAD would continue to host the exhibition, which took up much more space than just Norwich Gallery.

This year, 27 artists displayed paintings, sculptures and film exploring themes and myths surrounding urban history.