Imagine...

A Day without Art

This month, Sacramento's Second Saturday Gallery Association's Artist of the month is dedicated to all the artists we have lost to HIV and AIDS.

Officially, December 1st is "Day without Art".  In Sacramento, many Galleries will celebrate November 11th, 2006 (and continue through December 1st) by covering a work of art with a black cloth, representing what a day without art is like. 

AIDS ribbons will be available at participating galleries.

On December 1, 1989, loss prompted artists in New York to organize the first "A Day Without Art." Some galleries closed their doors in mourning for the day or shrouded paintings. Theaters were silent and dark. Communities across the nation observed "A Day Without Art" with silence. And now, 17 years later, AIDS continues to levy a heavy toll in every community, and artists continue to remember their friends and fellow artists lost to HIV and AIDS on December 1.

During those first commemorations the idea of absence permeated the observations.  In more recent years, the emphasis has shifted to the artists' responses to AIDS. On December 1 (and locally on November 11, 2006), Galleries, painters, poets, and performers serve as witnesses. They express the sentiments of our community and communicate our suffering in a tangible form. AIDS-related art not only chronicles this terrible disease, but asks: how can we translate this awareness into direct social action? "A Day Without Art" reminds us to vow an end to AIDS.