Program areas at New York City Aids Memorial
Event - Unquestioning Love November 2021.Unquestioning Love, with its title taken from a work generously donated by Jenny Holzer, presented an exemplary selection of contemporary artworks across two auctions the 21st Century Evening Sale on November 9 and the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 12 and for private sale, including many fresh from the artists' studios. This charitable auction was dedicated to creating a vital and strategic fund that will help preserve the Memorials physical space in perpetuity and support and strengthen many future years of ambitious arts, cultural, and educational programs.Event - Dance for a Memorial June 2022.On Wednesday, June 29, from 7-9 PM, the New York City AIDS Memorial celebrated music, memory, and our new installation Songs for a Memorial with a silent disco dance party in the NYC AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincents Triangle. We invited our friends, neighbors, supporters, and community to cool down after a bustling NYC Pride Weekend to dance under the stars with sets by DJ Lady Bunny and DJ Lina Bradford.
Public Program - World AIDS Day - December 2021.The New York City AIDS Memorial marked the annual observance of World AIDS Day and the 5th anniversary of our public dedication with a poetry reading curated by author Tim Murphy and featuring ten long-term HIV/AIDS survivors reading work by poets lost to AIDS followed by a candlelight vigil. An installation by world-renowned French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel complemented the events of World AIDS Day.Public Program - Meet Me On The Dance Floor June 2022.Collaborating with The Generations Project, the Memorial hosted a storytelling event to close out NYC Pride Month. Our storytellers shared stories about nightlife, partying, clubs, connecting under the disco ball, creating a community, and finding their places in the world through the power of music and dance. Public Program - Community Quilt Making Workshop October 2022.On October 14 & 15, 2022, the New York City AIDS Memorial was thrilled to partner with textile design studio Maharam and the National AIDS Memorial on a series of free, public, artist-led Community Quilt-Making Workshops at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, to mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Over 150 artists, designers, activists, volunteers, and community members joined us and AIDS Memorial Quilt co-founder and conservator Gert McMullin as we engaged in cross-generational conversation, continuing the intention of the activists who first imagined the Quiltto inform, to share, and to build community.
Exhibition - Songs for a Memorial June 2022. The New York City AIDS Memorial launched a newly commissioned, site-specific, sculptural installation by Houston, Texas-based artist Steven Evans. Songs for a Memorial (2020-22) consisted of 12 text-based, polychromatic, LED sculptures designed to evoke neon signage and the dynamic energy of nightlife, creating vibrant layers of color throughout the Memorial. This newly commissioned work exists at the intersection of language and memory through Evans appropriation of titles from songs tied inextricably to the period surrounding the onset and height of the AIDS epidemic.