The growing resurgence in ACT UP, this summer's International AIDS conference, and the growing conversation around HIV Criminalization made 2012 a watershed year for HIV remerging in the American public’s consciousness. Over a few blog posts Visual AIDS will look back at pivotal moments of AIDS in culture 2012. Email us what you think at info@visualaids.org.

AIDS Everywhere.

At Visual AIDS we live in a bubble. We eat, breath, sleep AIDS culture. But this year we felt less alone. Through out the year we came across artists doing interesting and intimate things that included HIV/AIDS that often involved a lot of people, and sometimes was just one person at a piano. Some highlights:

• B-OUT, curated by Scott Hug at Andrew Edlin Gallery was a massive exhibition showcasing the talent of queer artists including many from the Visual AIDS Artist Registry. One of the best shows of the summer season! Read a review.

• The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the AIDS Epidemic, curated by Kirk Read, was 3 nights of readings in San Francisco from passionate writers including Mark Abramson, Justin Chin, Brontez Purnell, Carol Queen, Kirk Read, Julia Serano, K.M. Soehnlein, Ed Wolf. You can watch the readings on Vimeo.
  

• Even for One Night: The Life, Music and Lyrics of Michael Callen, conceived and written by Jim Bredeson, The musical was a highlight for poet Britt Gambino who through the project got to meet Callen’s writing partner Richard Berkowitz. “ Meeting Richard Berkowitz so made my year. Not only did I get to write poetry inspired by this man, but I got to share it with him.”

• Not Over: You, Me, Us and AIDS was a three part event put on by artists Quito Ziegler, L.J. Robert’s and Visual AIDS’ Ted Kerr that included a variety of voices from New York in an attempt to bridge cultural divides with HIV activism and cultural production.

• #HIV: Current AIDS Writing at the Rainbow Art Book fair featuring Chaplin C. Jones, Jessica Max Stein, Ricky Tucker, and Aldrin Valdez. 4 readers sharing their work, which was followed by an intense conversation afterwards about being an ally in HIV activism. Learn more from the sneak peek that was published before the reading.

• 30 Years in, 30 Years Out: AIDS Activism Today as part of Carlos Motta's We Who Feel Differently at the New Museum was a joint effort with Queerocracy that looked at how art and community are needed to do effective AIDS activism.You can hear the presentation here!
  

• Addressing HIV/AIDS, a solo piano recital at NYU from Marcus Ostermiller, and Sound of HIV: Music transcribed from DNA from Alexandra Pajak were unique ways that musicians in 2012 were interacting with HIV.