Dia Center for the Arts will recognize World AIDS Day by participating in "A Day Without Art" on Friday, December 1, 1995. Visual AIDS, a diverse group of arts professionals, has sponsored "A Day Without Art" to increase awareness about AIDS and to promote action to end this social and health crisis.

Dia will present a screening of videotapes that address the AIDS crisis from the point of view of housing. Tapes will be screened in the Video Salon from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm at Dia, 548 West 22nd Street.

Artists and activists have used video as an important tool for public awareness, education, personal and artistic expression, and community outreach. Video production thus has been instrumental in the fight against AIDS. These tapes explore how supportive communities have been formed in response to AIDS and HIV by raising public awareness and consciousness around the special needs of people living with HIV and AIDS. The program will highlight approaches in housing, caregiving, and treatment, by featuring supportive environments which address individual emotional needs of people living with AIDS/HIV, their caregivers, their families, and their friends. The works range from personal narratives, experimental works and documentaries to PSA's advertising care services and housing options. Stand-Up Harlem and H.E.L.P./Project Samaritan, Inc. are two housing providers featured.

We are particularly indebted to ITVS and AIDSFILMS, Inc. who have produced a four-part series of videos, Positive: Life with HIV. Two segments from the series will be broadcast on PBS in January, and we are extremely grateful to them for allowing us to present these videos on this day. Segment producers include Juanita Anderson, Christine Choy, Gregg Bordowitz, Ayoka Chenzira, Lourdes Portillo, David Feinberg, and Catherine Saalfield, among others.

A complete video listing is available upon request.

The proceeds from the John Hollander and Kenneth Koch reading at Dia on the evening of December 1 and all donations to Dia collected on December 1 will be forwarded to Flemister House. Flemister House is a health care and housing program for people living with AIDS. Named in honor of Reverend Dr. Carl E. Flemister, it is located at 527 West 22nd Street across the street from Dia's main exhibition facility. Flemister House provide people living with AIDS a permanent home in a supportive environment. The Housing Program seeks to help people living with AIDS maximize their independence. For more information about Flemister House's Health Program, please call (212) 604-0168, or for more information about the Housing Program, call (212) 604-0124.

The Dia Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1974 to promote the development of the visual arts through programs including exhibitions, lecture series and symposia, poetry readings, and dance.

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For additional information or materials contact:
Press Department, Dia Art Foundation, press@diaart.org or 212 293 5518