Visual AIDS Archive and Artist Registry

The mission of the Visual AIDS Archive is to collect, describe, preserve, and provide access to the personal papers, audiovisual materials, publications, and ephemera created, dealing with, or collected by HIV-positive artists. 

Scheduling a Research Visit

The reading room is open Monday through Friday by appointment. To schedule a research visit, email archive@visualaids.org. Our research library and archival holdings are available for research during these visits. Virtual research appointments and scanning requests are also available, contingent on staff capacity and availability.
 

Archival Collections
 

Visual AIDS Artist Files

• The Visual AIDS Artist Files collection consists of 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 Project has been collecting materials since 1994, originally starting as a response to losing not only friends in the AIDS crisis but also the loss of art and personal papers that often followed.
  
  The finding aid for the collection is available here.
  More information about the Artist Files can be found here.
   

Visual AIDS Institutional Records

• The Visual AIDS Institutional Records collection consists of materials relating to the organizational history of Visual AIDS from 1989 to 2024. The bulk of Visual AIDS's institutional records were donated to NYU Fales Library and Special Collections in June 2017. The finding aid for that collection can be found here.
  
  The finding aid for the collection is available here.
   

Timothy Greathouse Collection

• The Timothy Greathouse Collection consists of materials relating to photographer and gallerist Timothy Greathouse (1950-1998). His work includes photographs of many notable people and places from the Downtown art scene in the 1980's and 1990's.
  
  The finding aid for the collection is available here.
   

Philip Yenawine Collection

• The Philip Yenawine Collection consists of materials relating to Philip Yenawine's work with Visual AIDS, particularly his role in the early years of Day Without Art. Materials span 1988-1995 and include correspondence, ephemera, meeting minutes and agendas, internal memos, and press releases. Some related Visual AIDS projects represented in the collection include Night Without Light, Electric Blanket, and the Red Ribbon Project.
  
  The finding aid for the collection if available here.
   

David Hirsh Tapes

• The David Hirsh Tapes are a landmark collection of interviews with more than 300 LGBTQ artists and curators during the height of the AIDS crisis. The interviews were conducted while Hirsh was writing weekly columns on gay and lesbian art and actively co-founding the Visual AIDS Archive. Spanning over 40,000 minutes of audio and video, the collection provides an extensive record of queer cultural production and community during the AIDS crisis. 
  
  A finding aid for the collection will be available in late 2026.
   

Joseph Modica Collection

• Joseph Modica (1946–2018) was a Staten Island-based photographer and visual artist who documented New York's downtown nightlife scene in the 1980s. The Joseph Modica Collection includes a large collection of his photographs, as well as personal papers, journals, correspondence, Modica’s commercial publishing work, and original drawings.
  
  A finding aid for the collection will be available in late 2025.
   

David Nelson & David Knudsvig Collection

• The David Nelson & David Knudsvig Collection documents the artistic practices and personal lives of partners David Nelson (1960–2013) and David Knudsvig (1947–1993). Knudsvig worked in encaustic, wood, and assemblage, while Nelson created sculptures, drawings, and photograms on themes of natural history. The collection includes notebooks, correspondence, exhibition records, slides, maquettes, and audiovisual materials, preserved by Nelson’s surviving partner Barry Paddock. 
  
  A finding aid for the collection will be available in 2026.

Other Resources
 

Visual AIDS Artist Registry

• The Artist Registry is an online repository containing artwork by over 970 HIV+ artists. Created in November 2012 with digitized slides from the Visual AIDS Artist Files, the Registry is continuously growing, allowing anyone who self-identifies as an artist living with HIV to create a profile.
  
  The Artist Registry can be found here.

Research Library

• Our research library contains over 400 exhibition catalogs, monographs, artist books, zines, magazines, and other publications pertaining to art about AIDS and artists with HIV and AIDS, with many rare and out-of-print titles. Our research library is available for in-office use only.
  
  To search the library catalog click here.