(re)Presenting AIDS: Culture and Accountability

(re)Presenting AIDS: Culture and Accountability

How “should” HIV/AIDS be represented in the public sphere?
In what ways do museums and galleries create history as much as they display it?
When “history” still has dire consequences for the present moment, what kind of engagement should historical institutions have with the communities whose stories they are telling?

Coming off the heels of the NY TIMES op-ed, How to Whitewash a Plague, Visual AIDS and the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History are proud to have hosted a public forum exploring the role museums, galleries and cultural institutions play, and can play, when presenting exhibitions related to HIV/AIDS.

This forum included voices involved in the curation, marketing and administration of AIDS related exhibitions, as well as artists, critics, and others with an invested interest. The evening was an interactive discussion, giving an opportunity to consider the needs and wants related to an exhibition about HIV/AIDS, and a chance to tackle the following questions:

1. What responsibility do institutions with little to no relationship with those most impacted by HIV/AIDS have when mounting an exhibition related to the ongoing epidemic?

2. As a community of people living with, and impacted by HIV, what do we want from cultural institutions when they engage with HIV/AIDS as a topic?

3. As the crisis of AIDS continues, how do we ensure that the stories that need to be shared are told and heard by those who need them the most?

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Moderator: Ann Northrop

Speakers:

Jason Baumann, Collections Strategy/LGBT Collections, New York Public Library

Kia Benbow, Artist, grenAIDS

Jim Hubbard, Filmmaker, United in Anger

Karl McCool, Assistant Director, Dirty Looks

Kris Nuzzi, Independent Curator, Not Over

Hunter O'Hanian, Director, Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art

Edwin Ramoran, Manager of Public Programs and Community Engagement, The Studio Museum in Harlem

Hugh Ryan, Writer, Founding Director of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History

Amy Sadao, The Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director, Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania

Nelson Santos, Executive Director, Visual AIDS

Free and open to the public

Twitter handle: #ongoingAIDS

Organized by Visual AIDS and the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History. Co-sponsored by The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS).