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Dear Visual AIDS Artist Members & Community:
I hope this summer has nourished you all with an abundance of warmth and rejuvenation despite the chaotic oppressions that we are collectively enduring during this ongoing pandemic. With much consideration, I’m writing to share that starting this Monday, August 23, I will be transitioning away from my full-time role as an Artist Engagement & Archive Manager to a part-time remote archive consultant role to support our current Mellon Community-based grant initiatives. To briefly share, I’ve recently relocated to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California’s dual degree Masters of Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere and Urban Planning program. I’m whole-heartedly excited and eager to continue building QTBIPOC artist relationships with our West Coast and Southwest diasporic communities.
Below, I’ve listed some additional staff contacts for addressing questions around artist member engagement and Archive Project inquiries including the online Artist+ Registry and emergency grants for artist members.
Artist Member Support - Staff Contacts:
For Artist Member Engagement & online Artist+ Registry technical support, contact Blake Paskal, Programs Associate at bpaskal@visualaids.org
For Artist Member Material Grants & COVID-19 Emergency grants, contact Nancy Chong, Development Associate at nchong@visualaids.org
During this ongoing pandemic, our collective Visual AIDS efforts have made overwhelmingly clear how critically important it is for us to continuously affirm, advocate, and support these communities with our ongoing cultural memory archival work, virtual and in-person public programs, and artist member engagement initiatives. During my time at Visual AIDS, I have been incredibly transformed by the breadth of both elder and activist knowledge, archival leadership, and intersectional approaches to growing and collectively building the Artist+ Registry & Archive Project alongside our wonderful artist members, staff, Archive Committee, community archivists and advocates.
Some Archival Hallmarks during my time in this role include:
Awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Community-based Archives Grant 2021-2022
Successful completion of DHSPNY 2020 Archive-Needs Assessment
Founded and co-facilitated the direction of the Archive Committee
Built archival partnerships with The LGBT Community Center National History Archive, curatorial partnerships with Pratt MFA program and supportive Archive Committee partnerships
Initiated “Office Hours,” an online workshop platform for artist members to discuss mental health experiences, resource sharing, attend curatorial visits, facilitate artist member talks and other interactive online events during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
To close gently, I understand the burdening weight of this heart-wrenching time -- and how demanding it is -- for each and every one of us, to apply rigorous intentional healing work to rectify the harms that have oppressed Black, Indigenous, APIA, and immigrant communities of color, particularly living with HIV and AIDS and other chronic illnesses like COVID-19. As I move forward in my curatorial, archival and site-specific community-based practices, I hold dearly these action-oriented, harm reduction tasks in mind to guide me in conversation with artistic community members.
Thank you all so much for your collective support, resource sharing, guidance, and critical feedback to light my journey while at Visual AIDS!
