Day With(out) Art

Day Without Art also written as Day With(out) Art (short: DWA) is an annual event where art museums and other organizations organize programs related to AIDS, people who have died, and to inspire positive action.

 History 
Day Without Art began started in 1989. It was response to the AIDS crisis as many artists also died of AIDS. The day coincides with World AIDS Day, which began the year before.

800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first Day Without Art. Museums were sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Day With(out) Art grew in collaborations to estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS service organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part.

New York group called "Visual AIDS" (now NGO), initiated public actions and programs, published an annual poster and copyright-free broadsides, and acted as press coordinator and clearing house for projects for Day Without Art/World AIDS Day. Day With(out) Art highlights art projects by artists living with HIV/AIDS, and art about AIDS, that were taking place around the world.

In 2014, the Los Angeles art collective, My Barbarian, staged a video performance in remembrance of Pedro Zamora, inspired by the queer theorist, José Esteban Muñoz's theory of counterpublicity.

In 2020, due to pandemic VisualAIDS organized online programming featuring commissioned diverse video works from different parts of the world and talks to authors. Programing was done in multiple languages and done both in the NYC and around the world at different times in different timezones with different partner organizations.

References

Other websites
 VisualAIDS.org: official Day Without Art website
 http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/dwa/dwa2006.html
 https://web.archive.org/web/20080908013708/http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/bk_issue/2005/winter/feature3.html

Category:1989 establishments
Category:LGBT events
Category:HIV/AIDS
Category:Art exhibitions
Category:December observances