Our Initiatives

About

With more than 33 million people currently infected with HIV around the world, and less than 10% receiving state-of-the-art care, the need for an innovative response is urgent. The UCLA Art | Global Health Center and MAKE ART/STOP AIDS are founded on the principle that artists are an essential part of anti-AIDS efforts. Artists are able to shape transformative insights and possibilities that literally redirect how people think and act. Our initiatives seek to unleash the transformative power of the arts by: 1) advancing an awareness and appreciation for the power of art to address crisis, 2) establishing artists as key partners in AIDS interventions around the world, and 3) inspiring attitudinal change through the production and dissemination of powerful, original artwork.

History

Founded in 2006, the Center nurtures a global network of artists and advocates working in the realm of public health. Harnessing the communicative power of the arts, our public health interventions celebrate sexuality as part of life, buttressed by principles of human rights and social justice. Center programs challenge communities and individuals to reconsider preconceived notions of intimacy in an age of disease, and of tolerance in an age of distrust. Piloted in Los Angeles, our programs are now running in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, India, and soon in Malawi and Kenya as well.

The Center's objectives are currently pursued in large part through the MAKE ART/STOP AIDS global initiative, an international network of scholars, artists, and activists committed to ending the global AIDS epidemic. UCLA Professor David Gere, Director of the UCLA Art | Global Health Center, established the MAKE ART/STOP AIDS network while on a Fulbright research grant in India in 2004. This network formed the basis for what would later become the Art | Global Health Center. In July 2004, Gere led a four-day workshop in Kolkata with 60 Indian and 15 international artists and activists under the MAKE ART/STOP AIDS banner. A subsequent daylong event in New Delhi brought the concepts developed in the workshop to the attention of leaders from the Indian government, media, and non-governmental organizations. Since then, MAKE ART/STOP AIDS has expanded from Kolkata to Los Angeles, from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro, and from Johannesburg back to Chennai, to create a truly international network. Funders have included UNAIDS, UNESCO, the Andy Warhol Foundation, UC MEXUS, the World Bank, and the Ford Foundation, among others.

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