{"id":22190,"date":"2015-12-03T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=22190"},"modified":"2015-12-03T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T22:00:47","slug":"blissful-ignorance-can-be-deadly-students-pass-on-hivaids-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/blissful-ignorance-can-be-deadly-students-pass-on-hivaids-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Blissful ignorance can be deadly: students pass on HIV\/AIDS event"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Bacharach<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been five years since a study found that 50 percent of HIV-positive youth under the age of 24 did not know their diagnosis. Are you shocked? Surprised?<\/p>\n

Virtually wearing a red ribbon of awareness, University of Illinois at Chicago\u2019s Gallery 400 participated in Day With(out) Art in hopes of raising HIV\/AIDS consciousness amongst students, but attracted only a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very happy with the interested parties that did come out. But we were saddened that there were not as many people as we had hoped\u2026there certainly were not as many students who attended,\u201d Gallery Director Lorelei Stewart said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Responding to the worsening AIDS crisis in 1989, Visual AIDS, an organization that uses art to fight the disease, created Day With(out) Art as, according to its website, \u201ca way to make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone, and inspire positive action\u201d in conjunction with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Twenty-six years later, 80 locations worldwide participated in Day With(out) Art by screening \u201cRadiant Presence,\u201d a slideshow with images by artists with HIV\/AIDS. As a participant, Gallery 400 dimmed its lights\u2014a traditional component of the event\u2014and played \u201cRadiant Presence\u201d on loop.<\/p>\n

\""Radiant<\/a>
“Radiant Presence” streamed throughout the day as visitors entered Gallery 400. (Elizabeth Bacharach\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because of its location at and association with UIC, Gallery 400 looked to attract the student community. Yet, Stewart estimated that only five out of the 20 attendees were students.<\/p>\n

Although not \u201coverly shocked\u201d by the numbers, Alisa Swindell, a Ph.D. candidate at UIC and graduate assistant at Gallery 400, said, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of astounding to those of us in an older generation\u2026that lived through the ’80s and ’90s at an age where we were old enough to be conscious of these things that something like Day With(out) Art\u2026would be out of the consciousness of people that are under 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, first, why this push for student engagement?<\/p>\n

According to Swindell, HIV rates for this demographic \u201cshouldn\u2019t be this high\u201d and too many young people \u201cdon\u2019t know [HIV\/AIDS] history.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fellow UIC graduate student and intern at Gallery 400, Devin Malone, hoped the event helped \u201cstudents gain some awareness because HIV infections are pretty high among young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attributing the low student turnout to a lack of awareness and knowledge of history, Swindell said youth need to learn \u201cwhat had to happen and who had to fight to the get to the point\u2026where you don\u2019t find yourself losing count of how many funerals you attended that month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the hope still remained that the gallery\u2019s participation in Day With(out) Art provided students a better understanding of HIV\/AIDS and its history because \u201cthere are a lot of people\u2026on campus specifically\u2026who weren\u2019t aware of [HIV\/AIDS],\u201d Malone said.<\/p>\n

Students, and event-goers as a whole, were also offered a clinical education on HIV\/AIDS by representatives of TPAN, an organization that provides health and wellness programs to those impacted by HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy college can be such a great space is that we have a lot of folks who maybe come from environments\u2026that maybe haven\u2019t talked about sexual education as much or\u2026HIV testing. So, it can be a really good opportunity to really reach the people who maybe have not\u2026a comprehensive understanding of these topics,\u201d said John Werning, an HIV testing specialist at TPAN.<\/p>\n

The most personal lesson for students offered by Gallery 400\u2019s participation in Day With(out) Art was finding out whether or not they are HIV-positive through TPAN\u2019s free testing.<\/p>\n

But why test for HIV in an art gallery?<\/p>\n

Although a seemingly odd location, the gallery allowed event-goers to get personal health results without the stress or stigmas of going to a clinic. Swindell, who was the mastermind behind inviting TPAN to the event, said a student looking to get tested could just tell people, \u201c\u2018I stopped in to see the show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Werning, who admitted that he \u201cwould love for more folks\u201d to have attended, said, \u201cNo matter if its one, five or 50, people still saw [\u201cRadiant Presence\u201d]\u2026and it got the message across; that\u2019s what\u2019s important right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

More information about the above organizations<\/h2>\n

TPAN<\/a><\/p>\n

Visual AIDS and Day With(out) Arts<\/a><\/p>\n

Gallery 400<\/a><\/p>\n

World AIDS Day<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Friendly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Looking towards the future and Day With(out) Art 2016, both Swindell and Werning said they hope to see changes in sex education.<\/p>\n

But if so many young people are already infected, what does sex education have to do with it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you ask me personally why I think the numbers are so high for people under 24 being unaware of their status,\u201d Swindell said, \u201cit\u2019s because of a lack of education about sexual health. I would love to see a return to younger people being taught what it means to be a sexual being and\u2026how to keep themselves safe at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event also included informational materials from the Chicago Chapter of the HIV\/AIDS anti-stigma organization Mr. Friendly.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Gallery 400 provided visitors resources from Chicago Chapter’s of Mr. Friendly. (Elizabeth Bacharach\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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