SING: Day With(out) Art

Visual AIDS marks Day With(out) Art 2013 with three events, concluding with:

SING
4-6pm, Rusty Knot (425 West St)
Day With(out) Art will end at Scissor Sundays at The Rusty Knot tying it to the power of music and acknowledging bars/night clubs as one of many sites of LGBTQ liberation, solidarity and cultural production. Enjoy deep house and disco sets by DJ Amber Valentine and others. Dance, sing, celebrate and continue the conversation informally.

Join us for the afternoon events before SING:

TALK
1-3pm, Artists Space:Books & Talks (55 Walker Street)
Join us for a public forum exploring the importance of sharing singular moments in personal stories as a way of understanding and responding to the ongoing AIDS crisis. Join fierce pussy and Risa Puleo along with artists and writers Alysia Abbott, Cathy Busby and Orlando Ferrand (Visual AIDS Artist Member) as they share personal stories. Historian and writer Christa Orth will facilitate group sharing of stories.

WALK

3-4pm, Starting at Artists Space (55 Walker St.) to Rusty Knot (425 West St.)
Transitioning from Artists Space to Rusty Knot, a walk through SoHo and the West Village—led by writer and curator Alex Fialho—will acknowledge and activate living history. In a spirit of lively remembrance, writers, curators, and artists will read briefly at the last residential addresses of Joe Brainard, Keith Haring, and Cookie Mueller; the former location of the New Museum, where Visual AIDS co-founder William Olander mounted the seminal window display “Let the Record Show…”; the site of Marsha P. Johnson’s death near the water of the Christopher Street Pier; and the AIDS memorial along the Hudson River Greenway.

Visual AIDS launched Day With(out) Art as a World AIDS Day initiative in 1989 to mourn those we have lost and to promote a broader awareness of the crisis. At its height Day With(out) Art was a collaborative project of an estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS Service Organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges. In 1997, Day Without Art became a day WITH art, to recognize and promote increased programming of cultural events that draw attention to the continuing pandemic. Though the name was retained as a metaphor for the chilling possibility of a future day without art or artists, Visual AIDS added parentheses to the program title, Day With(out) Art, to highlight the proactive programming of art projects by artists living with HIV/AIDS, and art about AIDS, that were taking place around the world. It had become clear that active interventions within the annual program were far more effective than actions to negate or reduce the programs of cultural centers. As the AIDS crisis and our understanding of it evolve, so must our actions. Visual AIDS continues to produce a year-round program of thought-provoking exhibitions, events and artist editions promoting HIV prevention and AIDS Awareness.