Divine interventions: Art in the AIDS epidemic

Media representations of the emergent AIDS epidemic (early to mid-1980s) linked the “gay artist” to disease and death, a connection that fueled homophobic responses but also helped mobilize cultural resources to combat AIDS through education and critique of social attitudes and government policies. Activist organizations such as ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), as well as informal networks of artist-activists, created a highly visible, widely reproduced visual presence. By the early 1990s, cultural responses to AIDS included high art alongside popular and folk art. Art about the problems and experiences of those affected in the epidemic were widely disseminated through celebrity performances as well as small, local community-based projects. As the demographics of HIV infection shifted in the 1990s, art and cultural production shifted, too. The impact of AIDS on intravenous drug users, people of color and women induced local community organizing which used art, but in a way much less visible than national campaigns such as Day Without Art. Despite the passing of the most provocative era of AIDS art activism, cultural production continues to be an organizing tool. Communities affected by HIV/AIDS use art and art making in prevention education, in making social injustice visible, and in militating for social change. This dissertation examines the ways in which several Philadelphia communities used cultural production both to reflect and to challenge the social constructions of AIDS embedded in policies and public discourse. Using interviews, participant observation, and media archives, this case study explores the use of arts and the process of art making in HIV/AIDS activism. The study analyzes existing cultural patterns of arts usage in communities affected by AIDS, with attention to how the shifting demographics of the epidemic have affected cultures, but also afforded new opportunities to use art forms to interpret, educate, and revitalize hard hit communities