AIDS is an everyday experience. The dates on this calendar all relate to the AIDS crisis. Some are globally known; others are drawn from personal experiences.
This online calendar is produced in partnership with Visual AIDS and is an extension of the exhibition “EVERYDAY,” which was curated by Jean Carlomusto, Alexandra Juhasz and Hugh Ryan in 2016. The exhibition and accompanying print calendar explored the AIDS crisis—historically and currently—through the lens of art and ephemera that examines and evidences daily experiences and practices in response to HIV/AIDS. Artists featured in the “EVERYDAY” exhibition were invited to submit as many dates to the calendar as they desired.
We invite you to reflect upon these dates, and this artwork, in dialogue with one another. We also encourage you to submit dates of your own by clicking here. Submissions may include the date of your diagnosis, the date of the loss of a loved one to AIDS-related illness or a significant milestone in your life with HIV/AIDS.
New submissions will be continually added to the calendar because AIDS is not over.
FEBRUARY 1
Mark S. King becomes director of AIDS Survival Project. (1993)
FEBRUARY 2
FEBRUARY 3
AmfAR announces the launch of Countdown to a Cure for AIDS, a $100 million research initiative aimed at finding a broadly applicable cure for HIV by 2020. (2014)
Visual AIDS and Jessica Whitbread open Love Positive Women exhibition with readings and reflections at Dieu Donne. (2016)
FEBRUARY 4
LiberaceWikiMedia
Piano virtuoso Liberace dies of AIDS-related complications. (1987)
The International Olympic Committee rules that athletes with HIV are eligible to compete in the Games. (1992)
FEBRUARY 5
FEBRUARY 6
Arthur AsheWikimedia/CC-BY-SA-3.0-NL/Rob Bogaerts
Professional tennis player Arthur Ashe dies of an AIDS-related illness. (1993)
FEBRUARY 7
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
FEBRUARY 8
Transdisciplinary artist Dudley Saunders performs In These Boxes at Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, LA. A mix of live music, narratives and video art, the performance explores the need to keep the dead from disappearing by holding on to their things. (2014)
FEBRUARY 9
FEBRUARY 10
MAC Cosmetics announces Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga as the new faces of its Viva Glam campaign, which donates 100% of lipstick sales to the MAC AIDS Fund. (2010)
Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder perform their hit song “That’s What Friends Are For” together for the first time in 23 years at the 25th Anniversary amfAR gala in New York City. The gala honors its founding chairman, Mathilde Krim, PhD, President Bill Clinton, Diane von Furstenberg and amfAR founding international chairman Elizabeth Taylor and raises more than $1.5 million for AIDS research. (2011)
FEBRUARY 11
A coalition of groups protest the city’s failure to respond to homelessness in the face of the tax breaks given to Donald Trump. (1989)
FEBRUARY 12
FEBRUARY 13
The HIV Justice Network issues the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation. The declaration provides a clear road map to ending inappropriate criminal prosecutions for HIV nondisclosure, potential exposure and unintentional transmission. (2012)
Memorial service and celebration honoring photographer Grahame Perry’s life is held in San Francisco. (2016)
FEBRUARY 14
Istock
National Condom Day
Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! opens on Broadway. The play revolves around eight gay men who gather for three summer weekends at a lakeside house in New York during the AIDS crisis. (1995)
POZ Personals, a dating service for people living with HIV, launches on Valentine’s Day. (2005)
FEBRUARY 15
The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) announces it has ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy. (2013)
FEBRUARY 16
Keith HaringCourtesy of Keith Haring Foundation
Artist Keith Haring dies of AIDS-related complications. (1990)
FEBRUARY 17
An HIV-themed episode of The Golden Girls titled “72 Hours” debuts on NBC. The episode centers on how Rose and her roomates deal with waiting for her HIV test results after a possible exposure to HIV through a blood transfusion. (1990)
(TV) Istock
Randy Shilts, the U.S. journalist who covered the AIDS epidemic and wrote And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, dies of an AIDS-related illness at age 42. (1994)
FEBRUARY 18
The TV miniseries It’s a Sin, about a group of friends living in London during the early days of the AIDS crisis, premieres on HBO in the United States. (2021)
FEBRUARY 19
Parting Glances, an early film about the AIDS pandemic starring Steve Buscemi, opens in theaters. (1986)
Derek Jarman dies of AIDS-related complications. (1994)
FEBRUARY 20
Visual AIDS exhibition Arts’ Communities/AIDS Communities opens at Boston Center for the Arts. (1998)
FEBRUARY 21
Justin B. Terry-Smith begins an HIV advice column in A&U Magazine (2012)
FEBRUARY 22
Justin B. Terry-Smith receives his MA in Public Health. (2015)
FEBRUARY 23
Visual AIDS launches DUETS: Che Gossett & Alice O’Malley in Conversation on Chloe Dzubilo. (2015)
FEBRUARY 24
Greg LouganisDreamstime.com
Olympic gold-medalist Greg Louganis announces on ABC’s 20/20 that he is living with HIV. (1995)
FEBRUARY 25
We Were Here, a documentary by David Weissman, premieres at The Castro Theatre in San Francisco. (2011)
Indiana state health officials announce an HIV outbreak linked to injection drug use in Scott County. By the end of the year, Indiana confirms 184 new cases of HIV linked to the outbreak. (2015)
FEBRUARY 26
President Barack Obama announces that Jeffrey Crowley will be the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy to coordinate efforts to address the ongoing AIDS crisis. (2009)
The Elton John AIDS Foundation hosts its 25th annual Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles. The event raises $7 million for the global effort to end AIDS. (2017)
FEBRUARY 27
New York City Board of Education votes to distribute condoms in public high schools. (1991)
“When We Rise”
The first episode of the miniseries When We Rise airs on ABC. The epic retelling of the LGBT civil rights movement spans four decades and is based on real-life pioneers. (2017)
FEBRUARY 28
FEBRUARY 29
Wilhemina DixonCourtesy of June Cross
Wilhemina’s War premieres on PBS. The documentary follows Wilhemina Dixon, an African-American woman in South Carolina who helps her granddaughter face the struggles of living with HIV. (2016)
ACT UP Golden Gate changes its name to Survive AIDS! to avoid being confused with ACT UP San Francisco. (2000)
About the Artwork
Scott Treleaven, Look After Each Other, 1993, Poster produced for the PosterVirus collective / AIDS Action Now!
I wanted to come up with something evocative of the kind of imagery that’s always caught my attention (HomoCult, Gran Fury, Queer Action Figures, etc). My work generally deals with ideas of interconnectivity, continuity, and perception, so the +/- symbols made sense especially; as constructs, or visual shorthand, they deliberately fall apart and vanish at the edge of the page. As for the text, the message is simple: a broad-based, heartfelt slogan meant to imply a number of issues around awareness, community, charity, and solidarity. It’s also meant to counter the awful, exclusionary push towards “normalizing” queer culture. We’ve always watched out for each another when no one else would.
— Scott Treleaven
Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications—while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. Visual AIDS is committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.
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