The art of protest: Placards go from street to gallery

A selection of the placards on display at Goldsmiths College, London

The banners ranged from crude political slogans to a witty depiction of George Osborne as Edward Scissorhands.

But the creators of the placards carried on last March's demonstration against spending cuts are being urged to come forward so that their works can be presented as a major work of art. Arts students at Goldsmiths college, University of London, have produced an exhibition incorporating hundreds of placards discarded by the 500,000 people who attended the "March For The Alternative" across the capital. The makeshift banners, left by a tree at Hyde Park at the request of the Goldsmiths students, will be kept in the Museum of London collection, alongside items recovered from the CND, Poll Tax and Suffragette protests from the last century.

A selection of 12 placards has been accepted as an exhibition in the Turner Contemporary museum in Margate, where they will be displayed alongside works by Henry Moore and David Hockney. The exhibition, due to open today (Saturday), has been delayed while the gallery tries to find a suitable space to show the placards safely.