HOMELESS people have been given jobs as curators at Bolton art gallery.

Four people have been taken off the streets to put together an exhibition on homelessness.

They have been working with a professional artist on a forthcoming show which will feature the best and worst covers from the Big Issue.

Magazine bosses are backing the project designed to give selected vendors who sell the magazine on the streets of Manchester and Liverpool an insight into the work of a professional art gallery. The project is an extension of the successful Out of the Vaults series which allows ordinary people to stage their own exhibitions in Bolton.

Gallery chief Adrian Jenkins said the four were picked for the unpaid placements because they are seriously interested in getting jobs in the world of art.

He said: "We put the idea to the Big Issue and they were very interested because the project has got practical value for the people involved.

"They see this as a way of easing the vendors back into a work situation because they have to be here at certain times on certain days and be assessed.

"The four people who have been working on this for several months now are very committed. They have had the opportunity to see all the stages involved in putting on an exhibition."

The four also helped gallery staff stage the present UFO display and have also been involved with a video project at the Big Issue offices in Manchester.

The exhibition will open on 20 March and run until May 29 and the Big Issue hope other art galleries will take the show.

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