Day Without Art was created by the organization Visual AIDS in New York City on World AIDS Day, December 1, in 1989. In talking about Day Without Art, Visual AIDS writes:"...the AIDS pandemic is not over. Now more than ever is the time to protest, cancel, disrupt, shroud, divert, and display. Now more than ever we ask that all Day Without Art participants create local observances tailored to the needs of their communities."It is in this spirit that Collected Visions created Positive Visions for Day Without Art 1996. The Positive Visions Archive contains snapshots and stories by and about people living with HIV/AIDS, who have died of AIDS, or who are caretakers of people with HIV/AIDS. This archive will remain and grow as a separate gallery within Collected Visions for as long as it is on the Web.Positive Visions 98 contains writings and images by students, faculty, and staff of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU where I teach Photography. I did not receive as many contributions as I was hoping for. I know most of the Tisch community has been deeply and personally touched by loss from AIDS and that mourning is often a deeply personal process. We all find our own ways to grieve or express our feelings. I fear, however, that for that many of the students that HIV/AIDS is not an issue. It is precisely for this reason that Day Without Art is so important. I will add more submissions as I receive them.
For Positive Visions 97 Day Without Art Project, I invited youth from the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City to contribute their writings and artwork about HIV/AIDS and create our Positive Visions site for 1997. The Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk School, is the oldest and largest not-for-profit multi-service agency serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.Please contribute photographs, memorials, testaments, and autobiographical writings to our Positive Visions Archive. You can email your story to cvisions@cat.nyu.edu, and we will put it together with your images. PLEASE NOTE that we will consider all contributions, but we cannot guarantee that all submissions will be accepted. Please see the submission information for more details. If you have any questions, please email me at cvisions@cat.nyu.edu.
- Lorie Novak, December 1, 1998