WAM is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the thirtieth annual Day With(out) Art by presenting STILL BEGINNING, a program of seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow.

The seven short videos range in subject from anti-stigma work in New Orleans to public sex culture in Chicago, highlighting pioneering AIDS activism and staging intergenerational conversations. Recalling Gregg Bordowitz’s reminder that “THE AIDS CRISIS IS STILL BEGINNING,”* the video program resists narratives of resolution or conclusion, considering the continued urgency of HIV/AIDS in the contemporary moment while revisiting resonant cultural histories from the past three decades.

Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. In 1989, Visual AIDS organized the first Day Without Art, a call to the art world for mourning and action in response to the AIDS crisis. For Day With(out) Art’s thirtieth year, over 100 institutions worldwide will screen STILL BEGINNING, recognizing the important and necessary work of artists, activists, and cultural workers who have responded to AIDS while emphasizing the persistent presence of the epidemic.

Free to attend, screening on a loop from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. The program will run 55 minutes in total.

ACCESSIBILITY: All videos will be captioned in English. The museum is wheelchair accessible and there's a single stall gender neutral restroom located behind the visitor services desk on the first floor.

Written in partnership between VisualAIDS and What Would An HIV Doula Do?, this year's resource guide provides important contextual information about this year's program and also contains discussion questions and links to further reading. View the web-friendly version by clicking here, or pick up a printed copy at the museum on December 4.

*The phrase first appeared in Bordowitz’s installation Drive (2002) and was recently displayed as a banner at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Image: Derrick Woods-Morrow, Much handled things are always soft, 2019. Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Production still by Patric McCoy