On World AIDS Day, Visual AIDS presents the 29th annual Day With(out) Art: ALTERNATE ENDINGS, ACTIVIST RISINGS, highlighting the impact of art in AIDS activism and advocacy today. For the event, Visual AIDS commissioned a series of short videos from six inspiring community organizations and collectives: ACT UP NY, Positive Women’s Network, Sero Project, The SPOT, Tacoma Action Collective, and VOCAL New York which will be looped in The Theater at MAD. The program represents a wide range of organizational strategies, from direct action to grassroots service providers to nationwide movement building, while considering the role of creative practices in activist responses to the ongoing AIDS crisis.

ALTERNATE ENDINGS, ACTIVIST RISINGS seeks to reflect the persisting urgencies of the HIV/AIDS epidemic by pointing to pressing and intersecting political concerns, including HIV criminalization, Big Pharma, homelessness, and the disproportionate effects of HIV on marginalized communities. At a moment of growing interest in the histories of AIDS activism, the 2018 Day With(out) Art foregrounds contemporary engagements between activists, artists, and cultural workers on the front lines.