Visual AIDS

Ever since its founding in 1988 by art critic and writer Robert Atkins, curators Garu Garrels, Thomas Sokolowski, and William Olander (1951-1989), Visual AIDS has been the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues. It was one of the first national initiatives to record the impact of the AIDS pandemic on the artistic community. To this day, it engages with the production and presentation of visual arts projects, exhibitions, public forums, and publications relevant to the subject of HIV/AIDS, as well as assists artists currently living with HIV/AIDS. Visual AIDS makes its utmost priority to preserve and honor the works of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. As part of their effort, David Hirsh and Frank Moore co-founded the Archive Project in 1994 as a means to safeguard the work of artists with HIV to ensure a cultural legacy. In 2012, the Archive Project was launched online as the Artist+ Registry, making it the largest publicly accessible database and registry of works by visual artists with HIV/AIDS.