Application Information

The next call for proposals will be posted in summer 2025. Subscribe to our mailing list for updates about future calls.

About the Visual AIDS Archive

The Visual AIDS Archive collects artwork documentation, personal papers, and records pertaining to the lives and work of artists living with HIV and AIDS, as well as those who have passed. The Archive was started in 1994 by Frank Moore and David Hirsh as a response to losing not only friends in the AIDS crisis but also the loss of art and materials that often followed. The Archive currently exists as 555 artist folders that are made up of artwork documentation (mainly in the form of slide photographs taken by Visual AIDS volunteers during the 1990s), personal papers such as artist statements, CVs, press clippings, exhibition announcements, correspondence with Visual AIDS, and other objects related to the lives and work of these artists. The files also contain a small number of artists' books, artworks on paper, personal photographs, and personal writing. In the spirit of community archives, our donations have come from artist members, estates, friends, and family members.

The Visual AIDS Archive is always open to researchers and the general public by appointment. For more information about our archival holdings and how to schedule a research visit, see here.

Since 2012, the Archive has also existed online as the Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry. The online registry currently features digitized images and biographical information related to 347 artists from the physical archive, along with 418 other artists who have joined or been added digitally. The registry can be browsed at visualaids.org/artists

Support

The Visual AIDS Archive and associated programs are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Hauser & Wirth Institute, Lambent Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.