Visual AIDS Archive and Artist Registry
The Visual AIDS Archive Project and Artist Registry document the contributions of HIV+ visual artists and ensures that their legacy is not lost to history.
The mission of the Visual AIDS Archive is to continue to collect, describe, preserve, and provide access to the personal papers, audiovisual materials, publications, and ephemera created, dealing with, or collected by HIV+ artists.
The Visual AIDS Archive and Artist Registry collects 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 personal papers that often followed. The archive exists as artist collections that are mainly made up of personal papers such as slide photographs taken by Visual AIDS volunteers during the 1990s, 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.
In November 2012, Visual AIDS launched the Artist Registry as the digital outgrowth and access point for digitized photographs from the physical collection. Most profiles, but not all, contain biographical information in the form of short biographies, artist statements, and CVs. The Artist Registry is a continuously growing, online repository containing artwork by over 970 HIV+ artists. The Registry is open to the public, allowing anyone who self-identifies as an artist living with HIV to create a profile, upload images of their artwork, add biographical information, and add new images of work at their convenience.
Since 2020, we have been working to continue digitizing our collections and publish more information about our holdings to facilitate research and access.
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.
The Visual AIDS Archive Committee was started in January 2020 to engage community members in collectively re-envisioning our archival practices. Initially organized by Tracy Fenix, former Artist Engagement & Archive Manager with support from Kyle Croft, Programs Director, the committee met regularly into 2022. Its members now serve in an advisory capacity.
Shane Aslan Selzer, Social Action Archive Committee
Katherine Cheairs, What Would an HIV Doula Do (WWHIVD) collective member
Ursula Davila-Villa, Archive Estate Manager and former Visual AIDS Board Member
Kailee Faber, former Archivist at Visual AIDS
Tracy Fenix, former Artist Engagement & Archive Manager at Visual AIDS
Lou McCarthy, Archivist at The LGBT Center
Cherry Montejo, Archivist at Hunter College & Chris Calhoun Agency
Anthony Rosado, Curator, Artist, Artist Member
J Soto, Director of Engagement and Inclusion, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art
Sur Rodney (Sur), Archivist & long-standing Visual AIDS community member
Related Projects
Related Events
Lives and Legacies of the Visual AIDS Archive |
October 13, 2023 |
Digital Surveillance, Privacy, and Preservation in Community-based Archives |
October 22, 2020 |
Caretaking in the Archive |
October 2, 2019 |
Activating the Archive Project |
November 8, 2018 |