Nearly 30 students and art graduates will be a key part of Scotland's exhibition at the world's biggest visual arts festival.

Scotland's show at the 56th International Art Exhibition, know as La Biennale, will include not only the art of chosen artist Graham Fagen but the contribution of young artists from seven art and design schools.

They have been chosen by the curators of the Scotland + Venice show, Hospitalfield in Arbroath.

A feature of the Scottish show in Venice since 2003, this year the education programme will see the first students from Dundee and Angus College, Moray School of Art, and University of the Highlands and Islands in Elgin to be involved.

There are also students from City of Glasgow College, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art, The Glasgow School of Art and Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.

Each of the students will spend up to four weeks in Venice, greeting visitors to Fagen's exhibition as well as performing other duties, including taking part in a new project called The Loop.

Fagen's commission for the Venice Biennale will be presented at the Palazzo Fontana - a new location for the Scotland + Venice presentation - which is located off the Grand Canal in the Cannaregio district of Venice.

Lucy Byatt, director of Hospitalfield, said: "We have inherited this wonderful Learning Programme that has been developed in each edition of Scotland + Venice since 2003.

"The opportunity to shoulder considerable responsibility as the public face of Scotland + Venice and to spend a month living and working in Venice is an experience that I am sure we all wish we had when we were at college.

"I very much look forward to working with the students that we have selected from each college and thank all the staff who have worked with and guided us. It has been a hugely rewarding experience to meet so many astonishing young people with so much potential."

Fagen's art mixes media; combining video, performance, photography, and sculpture with text, live music, and a variety of other objects.

Hospitalfield Arts is based in the early arts and crafts house and grounds of the 19th century artist and collector, Patrick Allan-Fraser.

South of Arbroath, the house, collections and estate were left in trust on Allan-Fraser's death and in 1901 Hospitalfield was established as a place of work and learning for artists and students.