Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Announces Screening of Alternate Endings An Original Video Program For Day With(out) Art's 25th Anniversary Presented by Visual AIDS

The Modern will screen the films at 2 pm on Wednesday, December 3  

with a post-screening spotlight tour of works in Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s.  

Gallery admission is free for tour participants.

Visual AIDS presents ALTERNATE ENDINGS, a new series of films screening for the 25th anniversary of Day With(out) Art.

On December 1, 1989, Visual AIDS organized the first Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. To honor the 25th year of Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS is commissioning seven artists/collaboratives to create new short films about the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, focusing on the issues of today. Working with filmmaker Tom Kalin, the invited artists include Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Lyle Ashton Harris, Derek Jackson, Tom Kalin, My Barbarian, and Julie Tolentino. The films will be screened internationally on or around December 1, 2014.

The Modern will screen the films at 2 pm on Wednesday, December 3 with a post-screening spotlight tour of works in Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s. Tour participants receive complimentary admission to the museum galleries.

A Day With(out) Art 

Day Without Art began on December 1, 1989 as a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis.

To make the public aware that AIDS can touch anyone, and to inspire positive action, some 800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first Day Without Art, shutting down museums, sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Since then, the event has grown into a collaborative project in which an estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS service organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part. Visual AIDS initiated public actions and programs, published an annual poster and copyright-free broadsides, and acted as press coordinator and clearing house for projects in conjunction with Day Without Art / World AIDS Day.

In 1997, Visual AIDS suggested Day Without Art become a day WITH art, and changed the name to Day With(out) Art, to recognize and promote increased programming of cultural events that draw attention to the continuing pandemic. Though the name was retained as a metaphor for the chilling possibility of a future day without art or artists, parentheses were added to the program title, Day With(out) Art, to highlight the proactive programming of art projects by artists living with HIV/AIDS, and art about AIDS, that were taking place around the world. It had become clear that active interventions within the annual program were far more effective than actions to negate or reduce the programs of cultural centers.

Images available upon request.