Visual AIDS announces Being & Belonging, a program of seven short videos highlighting under-told stories of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of artists living with HIV across the world. Being & Belonging will premiere at over 100 museums and arts organizations on December 1, 2022 for Day With(out) Art / World AIDS Day.

Being & Belonging will feature newly commissioned work by:

Camila Arce (Argentina)
Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes (USA)
Jaewon Kim (South Korea)
Clifford Prince King (USA)
Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas (Colombia)
Mikiki (Canada)
Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry (México)

From navigating sex and intimacy to confronting stigma and isolation, Being & Belonging centers the emotional realities of living with HIV today. How does living with HIV shift the ways that a person experiences, asks for, or provides love, support, and belonging? The seven videos are a call for belonging from those that have been stigmatized within their communities or left out of mainstream HIV/AIDS narratives.

The artists in this year’s program were selected through an open call process juried by curator and writer Nico Wheadon, filmmaker Jorge Bordello, artist and curator Ezra Benus, and cultural consultant and health activist Lauraberth Lima.


Day With(out) Art
In 1989, to make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone and to inspire positive action, Visual AIDS presented the first Day Without Art—organizing museums and art institutions nationwide to cover up their artwork, darken their galleries, and even close for the day—to symbolically represent the chilling possibility of a future without art or artists. Since then, Day With(out) Art has grown into a collaborative annual project in which organizations worldwide present exhibitions, screenings and public programs to highlight work by HIV+ artists and artwork addressing current issues around the ongoing AIDS pandemic. ENDURING CARE is the 32st annual Day With(out) Art project.


Visual AIDS
Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS, and preserving the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. www.visualaids.org


Credits
This online platform is based on a design by Glen Fogel.


Funders
We would like to thank the following funders who support Visual AIDS work and mission: Alphawood Foundation Chicago, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Dr. Daniel S. Berger Charitable Giving Fund, a Donor Advised Fund of Renaissance Charitable Foundation, Between Bridges, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS,Council for Canadian American Relations, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Gilead Sciences, The Keith Haring Foundation, Marta Heflin Foundation, Humanities NY, Japan Foundation, JW Anderson, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, LOEWE, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust's DIFFA Fund, New York Gay Pool League, NYU Community Fund, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, Supreme, Teiger Foundation, Tish & Snooky's Manic Panic NYC, Todd Snyder, ViiV Healthcare, Rafael & Diana Viñoly Foundation, and our generous individual donors.  

Our programs are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional funding is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.