For immediate use

Nov. 24, 1997-- No. 882

Project Face to Face brings the stories and lives of AIDS patients closer to home

By MEEGAN P. SMITH
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- For many people, AIDS is a disease that affects faceless others whose stories and lives don't seem real or even very important.

Organizers of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's annual World AIDS Day commemoration Dec. 1 hope to change that with the “Project Face to Face” exhibit.

The project brings people with HIV literally within reach of the public, and their stories closer to home. Student Health Services and the World AIDS Day Planning Committee are co-sponsoring the exhibit, which will be displayed in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union art gallery beginning Dec. 1.

The gallery will be lined with molded masks of the faces of 20 people living with AIDS. Accompanying each face mask is a taped recording of the person's actual voice telling his or her story about living with the disease.

There also will be 16 text panels of quotes from the individuals describing their reactions to being diagnosed with AIDS and to seeking support from the community. Students and others viewing the exhibit may post their own responses on more than 1,000 sticky notes available in the gallery.

This interactive and multimedia exhibit has proven to be a personal and powerful experience, said Christian Godwin, HIV coordinator for Student Health Services. Godwin said she expected the exhibit would effectively impress upon students the reality of AIDS.

“This is about people living with AIDS,” she said. “The special thing about the exhibit is that it portrays actual people sharing in their own voices what their life is like. The exhibit asks viewers to think about how much compassion they can bring to the issue, and gives them an opportunity to meet someone with AIDS through art.”

The project has toured the country for the past six years, making appearances at the Smithsonian Institute, the Seventh International Conference on AIDS, the Portland Museum of Art, “Good Morning America” and other college campuses.

At each stop of the exhibit, artist Jason Dilley adds a molded mask of a local person with HIV to the collection. On Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. in the gallery, Dilley will mold the mask of a Durham man living with AIDS. The new mask will join the 20 others on display in the gallery.

The exhibit is the first of a series of events and demonstrations planned to commemorate World AIDS Day throughout the month of December, Godwin said. Others taking place include:

• Dilley will visit UNC-CH classes and area high schools from Dec. 1 to 5 to talk with students about his exhibit and artwork.
• A play called “Us Three” will be performed Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in Gerrard Hall on the UNC-CH campus. In his play, author and playwright Gil Faison, a student at N.C. Central University, tells the story of three black males who have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
• Portions of the AIDS memorial quilt will be displayed throughout UNC-CH residence halls the week of Dec. 1 to 5. The display is sponsored by the Residence Hall Association.
• A benefit for the Children's Support Fund, part of the UNC Hospitals' pediatric infectious disease clinic, will raise money and awareness for children with AIDS. The group Hip Hop Nation will perform a benefit concert at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

The Project Face to Face exhibit, which is free and open to the public, can be viewed daily from Dec. 1 to 19 and Jan. 4 to Jan. 30 between the hours of 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Also as part of the World AIDS Day remembrance, the UNC-CH art department will hold a Day Without Art to remember people in the art community who have fallen victim to AIDS. The Allcott Galleries in the Hanes Art Center will be draped to cover the art exhibits and a small sign with text will explain the memorial.

Beth Grabowski, art professor and chair of the gallery committee, said the Day Without Art has been held for years to quietly remember those who have suffered from AIDS. “It's a memorial, it's an observance, it's not meant to be some flashy event,” she said. “It's a somber occasion and quiet remembrance of the toll that it has taken on the art community.”

World AIDS Day sponsors include UNC-CH Student Health Services, Carolina AIDS Resource Education Service, the World AIDS Day Planning Committee, Carolina Union Activities Board, the UNC-CH School of Public Health, B-GLAD, Roche Pharmaceuticals and UNC-CH Student Government's Executive Branch. For more information, call Godwin at 966-6586.

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World AIDS Day contact: Christian Godwin, 966-6586

News Services print contact: Karen Stinneford

News Services broadcast contact: Karen Moon