SOME will love them, some will hate them, but there will be no ignoring the sculptures to be exhibited in Winchester later this year.

Some of Britain's best-known artists will be showing their work at an unprecedented display of modern art, called The Year of Sculpture.

The city and county councils, school of art and cathedral are hosting artists including Damien Hirst and Rachel Whiteread.

The Great Hall will show pieces by Mr Hirst, as revealed by the Daily Echo last year.

His exhibition entitled We're Born, We Look Around, We Die will run from September 21 to January 10, 2008. It will include works such as A Thousand Years, Away from the Flock and new butterfly wing paintings.

Meanwhile the cathedral is staging a show, called Light, from May 3 to July 31.

Artists exhibiting include 1993 Turner Prize-winning Rachel Whiteread, Marc Quinn and David Batchelor.

Ms Whiteread is famed for her casts of desks and other everyday objects. She once used tons of concrete to make a cast of a three-storey house. Her exhibits will not be so large.

A third show, Rummage - Sculptors' Drawing, featuring Anthony Caro, Richard Deacon and Richard Long, has been arranged for the Winchester Gallery, Park Avenue, from April 25 to June 5.

Mr Hirst, who has visited the Great Hall, has chosen to exhibit here because he loves the 13th century space.

He said: "I wasn't sure what to expect when I visited the Great Hall, I had recently done a show at the Archaeological Museum in Naples and enjoyed working in a space steeped in so much history. I loved seeing my work in that context and the Great Hall has a similar appeal for me.

"Different surroundings bring different meaning to works of art and I like the idea of working in unusual spaces, where a viewer wouldn't necessarily expect to see my work.

"As soon as I saw the Round Table it reminded me of the rose stained glass windows that inspired my current series of butterfly wing paintings."

Revelation John Gibbons, curator of the exhibitions and head of sculpture at Southampton University, said of Light: "It seeks to illuminate a resonance between the contemporary and the ancient. In all the works I have chosen there is a sense of revelation."

Stuart Vause, managing director of Winchester Cathedral Enterprises, said the cathedral had obtained a Heritage Lottery grant to pay for its sculpture show.

"A lot of people are interested in contemporary sculpture. If we can run this sort of thing every two years, it could become a very significant part of the city's offer," he said.