FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Jeannine Schechter Jacobi
Fresh PR
310.857.6994
Jered Gold
Art Center College of Design
626.396.2251
ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN WELCOMES “GRAPHIC INTERVENTION: 25 YEARS OF
INTERNATIONAL AIDS AWARENESS POSTERS” TO THE WILLIAMSON GALLERY FROM FEBRUARY
26, 2011 TO APRIL 24, 2011
Dovetailing Art Center Illustration Department/Designmatters Student
Exhibition,
"The Graying of AIDS: Off The Wall," to Begin April 11,
2011
(Pasadena,
CALIF.) February 17, 2011 – “Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of
International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985-2010” pays homage to James Lapides'
extensive archive of international AIDS Awareness posters along with posters
generously donated to Massachusetts College of Art and Design. This cohesive
collection over 150 posters presents an compelling overview of diverse visual
strategies created by many different artists working within their own distinct
cultural and national perspectives on the subject of AIDS as a public health
emergency. The travelling exhibition comes to the Alyce de Roulet Williamson
Gallery at Art Center College of Design from February 26, 2011 to April 24,
2011, with a closing reception on April 14, 2011.
The rampant spread
of the HIV/AIDS virus over the past three decades has created the most
significant global public health crisis in modern history. As the epidemic
unfolded and propagated globally, the need to educate the world’s
public about the devastating disease became critical. Moreover, with the
disease’s association with sexuality and sexual behavior, communicators faced
increased challenges around social and moral issues deeply rooted in various
cultures and traditions. Within this context, the graphic poster became a vital
tool in humanity’s battle against the spread of AIDS, despite the existence of
more advanced communication technologies. In many countries, the
poster as a medium of information was unknown before the emergence and
identification of the HIV virus.
“Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness
Posters 1985-2010” demonstrates the wide range and tremendous impact of some
of the most notable AIDS education posters. The designs and presentations
feature a myriad of messages, visual metaphors, and strategies that tackle the
epidemic across drastically different cultures and moral points of view.
Countries located in Africa, Asia, Oceania, North America, South America,
and Europe are represented.
“The AIDS
epidemic spread devastation across all swaths of humanity, regardless of
culture, tradition, or social perspectives,” noted Williamson
Gallery director Stephen Nowlin. “This exhibition delivers a commanding
representation of these messages. The posters are arresting and provocative, but
the thread of compassion and human outreach that weaves through all of them will
make gallery visitors hold their breath in contemplation,” he added.
Coinciding with exhibition and beginning on April 11, 2011, the gallery
will host an Art Center Illustration Department/Designmatters exhibition
entitled “The Graying of AIDS Exhibition: Off The Wall.” The exhibition showcases
student work inspired by “The Graying of AIDS:
Stories from an Aging Epidemic,” a multi-platform outreach campaign led by the New York-based team of Katja
Heinemann and Naomi Schegloff, which aims to educate health care and social
service professionals about the risks and realities of HIV/AIDS and older
adults. With studies
projecting that more than half of all people living with HIV in the US will be
over 50 by 2015, “The Graying of AIDS” was
originally developed by Heinemann as a print feature for Time Magazine in 2006,
and today is the first and only
national education and prevention outreach campaign around AIDS that is geared
towards seniors and their care providers.
“Graphic Intervention” was
organized by Elizabeth Resnick and Javier Cortes in collaboration with James
Lapides, International Poster Gallery, Boston, and Massachusetts College of Art
and Design, Boston. Williamson Gallery exhibitions are
made possible in part by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance and the
generosity of the Williamson Gallery Patrons.
About the Alyce de Roulet
Williamson Gallery
The Alyce de Roulet Williamson
Gallery at Art Center College of Design has established a national reputation
for its ongoing series of exhibitions exploring the boundaries, relationships,
and perspectives of art and science.
Recent Williamson Gallery
exhibitions in the series include
OBSERVE, a collaboration with the
NASA/JPL-Caltech Spitzer Space Telescope;
In the Dermisphere, a look
at the natural history of skin; and
TOOLS, an exploration of
extensions to human biology.
For Google links to the Williamson Gallery
art/science programs, visit
williamsongallery.net/google.
About Art Center
College of Design
Founded in 1930 and located in
Pasadena, California, Art Center College of Design is a global leader in art and
design education and the first design school to receive the United Nations’
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Art Center offers bachelor’s
degrees in advertising, entertainment design, environmental design, film, fine
art, graphic design, illustration, photography and imaging, product design, and
transportation design. A graduate program of study can lead to a master’s
degree in art, broadcast cinema, industrial design, and media design. The
college also offers a series of programs for the general public, including Art
Center at Night for continuing studies program; Saturday High for high school
students; Art Center for Kids for children in the fourth through eighth grades;
and the Design-Based Learning program for K-12 educators.
About
Designmatters at Art Center
As an educational department and
Concentration at Art Center, Designmatters partners with every discipline to
focus on art and design education with a social impact agenda and "real-world"
outcomes. The work is implemented through a series of unique partnerships and
alliances with global development agencies, government groups, academic
institutions, local and national non-profits, and leading industry. Through
Designmatters, students are invited to apply their talent, creativity and
tool-box of skills to address some of the most troubling humanitarian and social
challenges of our time with empathy, discipline, and unwavering optimism to
effect change.
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