Art of the AIDS Crisis at 30
Monday, October 10, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Organized by Frances Phillips, program director, arts and the Creative Work Fund, Walter and Elise Haas Fund.
Presented by Jaime Cortez, artist and arts program assistant, San Francisco Arts Commission; Jonathan David Katz, associate professor, SUNY Buffalo; Joël Tan, director of community engagement, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Marvin K. White, poet.
San Francisco's arts community was devastated by the AIDS epidemic, generating a robust artistic and activist response. The infected population in San Francisco in the 1980s was predominantly composed of white men, but the AIDS demographic is changing to include more people of color, women, and transgender community members. How did artists respond to the crisis? How did grassroots and major institutions respond? Have the approaches and messages changed? This session combines brief artist presentations of poetry, film clips, and documentation with discussion among all session participants of the artistic leaders and institutions that mourned, protected, celebrated, or educated, and those that are sustaining a response to the epidemic. Bring stories from your communities.
