Picturing AIDS and Its Publics: Educational Posters from the Atwater Collection
​​Curated by Berin Golonu and Alexander Brier Marr
Jan. 26 -- May 21, 2012
Opening reception, Jan. 26, 7 p.m.
Rare Books & Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester

Since the discovery of the AIDS virus over 30 years ago, public health campaigns have used images to create awareness of the deadly disease. Looking back, these images also reflect a history of society’s evolving attitudes toward the disease, homosexuality, fear, and the understanding of links between sex and AIDS. The program Looking at AIDS 30 Years On, sponsored by the Humanities Project, looks at the relationship between AIDS and global culture in art, activism, and academia, through film screenings, a lecture by author and anthropologist Cindy Patton, and an exhibition of educational posters and related ephemera from the University's AIDS Educational Poster Collection. The exhibition Picturing AIDS and Its Publics featured selected posters from the Atwater collection, consisting of more than 6,200 posters from 100 plus countries in 60 languages. The selected posters narrate the changing look of AIDS over time, and by geographical and cultural context. The Atwater collection of AIDS educational posters can be accessed at http://aep.lib.rochester.edu  
 
Public Events:
Jan. 25, 6 p.m.
Screening of three films by filmmaker and activist John Greyson: "The World is Sick," "The Pink Pimpernel," and "The AIDS Epidemic." John Greyson is a filmmaker, video artist, writer, activist and associate professor in the Department of Film at York University. Descriptions of his films can be found at http://www.vtape.org/catalogue.htm.
 
Jan. 26, 5:30 p.m.
Craig Owens Memorial Lecture given by Cindy Patton 
"Buggering John Greyson: Works on AIDS, Sex, and Politics from the 1980s"
Cindy Patton holds the Canada Research Chair in Community Culture and Health at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where she is professor of women's studies, sociology, and anthropology. Her talk will examine Greyson's early film work documenting AIDS activism and debates about representations of safe sex.
 
Feb. 14, 5:30 p.m.
Members of the collective Gran Fury, Loring McAlpin and John Lindell, in conversation. Gran Fury, an affinity Group of Act Up, created some of the iconic images that branded the AIDS activist movement in the late 1980s and early 90s. Responding to the Reagan administration’s silence about AIDS, as well as to the stigmatization of people with HIV, Gran Fury sought to make visible the social and political dimensions of the pandemic. With stylish, smart, and provocative text and image, Gran Fury sought to command attention in order to advance the public discourse around AIDS.