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Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy ** Integrated Policy Exercise ** January 2003

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A Day With(Out) Art

November 26 - December 4, 2002

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) will observe the fourteenth annual Day With(Out) Art during World AIDS Day with programs that call attention to the devastation caused by the AIDS virus. Observances and programs will span nine days and include the display of five sections of the NAMES Project Aids Memorial Quilt, November 26 - December 4.

Displaying the AIDS Memorial Quilt offers an opportunity to educate people about HIV / AIDS, to remember those who have died, and to comfort the grieving. By showing the humanity behind the statistics, the Quilt encourages compassion and inspires personal involvement in combating the AIDS epidemic. UMMA's Quilt installation will hang from the balcony of the Museum's graceful and architecturally imposing central Apse, surrounding visitors with its messages of remembrance, awareness and hope.

Speaking on December 1 at the Museum is Robert Atkins. His talk and slide presentation will begin with a look at photographers responding to horrific media imagery of emaciated AIDS victims and then track stunningly effective public artworks such as Silence=Death, the Red Ribbon, and the NAMES Project Quilt. His formal presentation will be followed by an opportunity for an extended conversation with the audience. Mr. Atkins is an art historian, activist, journalist, online producer and editor based in New York and California. He is a Fellow at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and media-arts editor for The Media Channel.  Previously, Atkins was a founder of Visual AIDS, the group that originated Day With(Out) Art and the Red Ribbon, and was originating editor/producer of Artery: The AIDS-Arts Forum.

UMMA will repeat its powerfully moving and well-attended annual poetry reading on Monday, December 2. As in the past, this event will bring diverse representatives of our own community together to mark this occasion in partnership with U-M's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Affairs, the HIV/AIDS Resource Center, and various poetry groups and poets.

Commenting on the significance of the Day With(Out) Art/World AIDS Day activities, University Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Sean M. Ulmer stated, "Day With(Out) Art is an opportunity to take a moment to remember all those who have died as a result of this global plague. Not only is the loss to the art world enormous, but the disease continues to claim victims from all walks of life on a worldwide level at an ever-alarming rate."

UMMA's Day With(Out) Art project is co-sponsored by the HIV/AIDS Resource Center, AIDS Partnership Michigan, and the University of Michigan's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Affairs. Robert Atkins's visit is made possible by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design's Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Visitors Series.