ART students will today reveal some of their most ambitious work yet in the biggest event in the North-East to mark World Aids Day on Sunday.

Thirty-six works of art, each 7ft tall and 2ft wide, are being exhibited in Darlington Town Hall foyer and council chamber to draw attention to HIV/Aids, which claims the lives of five people a minute.

Foundation art and design course students at the town's Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College have worked on the project for the past six weeks.

Thirty-five students were commissioned in a joint initiative involving Gay Advice Darlington (Gad), Darlington Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Darlington Borough Council.

It also involved the Pierremont Occupational Therapy Unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital and Darlington Drug and Alcohol Action Team.

Mayor Doris Jones and PCT chairman Sandra Pollard will open the exhibition.

Gad community worker Barry Birch said: "HIV/Aids has not gone away and neither has the prejudice and stigma that accompanies it.

"We can prevent the spread of HIV by choosing safer sex and by not sharing needles and syringes. So how can we prevent the spread of prejudice and stigma?

"The best way is to challenge the ignorance that promotes fear and encourages intolerance."

Rita Smith, the college's director of creative arts, said of the students' work: "They looked at the issue of safe sex for teenagers, the problems gay people face and the HIV statistics for Africa.

"They also studied poetry written by people living with the virus and from all that had very different approaches to the work."

The exhibition includes a blow-up of the virus, completed in textiles and beads, and a piece that looks like a bathroom cabinet, but behind each door are some of the combination therapies taken by people with Aids.

HELPLINE NUMBERS

* Gay Advice Darlington: (01325) 252522

* National Aids Helpline: Freephone 0800 567123 - 24 hours

* Terrence Higgins Trust Helpline: 020 7242 1010 - noon to 10pm daily

* Body Positive - PositiveLine: Freephone 0800 616 212 - Monday to Friday 7pm to 10pm, Sunday 4pm to 10pm

* Aids Treatment Project. Confidential line: 0845 947 0047 (calls charged at local rates). Monday and Wednesday 3pm to 9pm, Tuesday 3pm to 6pm.