Help sustain the vital work of Visual AIDS at our beloved annual benefit celebration -- VAVA VOOM (the Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards)! All proceeds support our mission to utilize art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting artists living with HIV, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS isn't over. From early projects like the creation of the Red Ribbon to our now over 130 programs, screenings, and events annually, we haven't stopped supporting artists living with HIV and the legacies of those we have lost to AIDS since 1988.

Read more about the 2024 honorees and their incredible work here.

Funds raised through VAVA will go towards: supporting 137 artists living with HIV through direct $400 Artist Support Grants each year ($55k in grants given out each year); sustaining the Visual AIDS Archive and Registry, ensuring nearly 1000 artists living with HIV and the legacies of those lost to AIDS are upheld; empowering women living with HIV through our Women’s Empowerment Art Therapy Workshops at major art organizations each month; exhibiting and sending 500+ artist-made Valentine’s cards to women living with HIV in 46 countries and 42 U.S. states through our anti-stigma LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN program each year; commissioning 5 new short-films for Day With(out) Art to be shared across NYC and at 140+ art institutions worldwide; hosting researchers to conduct work to highlight underknown artists lost to AIDS through our year-long Research Fellowship and associated symposium; and continuing our exhibition, publication, and free public programs throughout the year to bring contemporary dialogue around HIV and AIDS forward through art and artists.

Purchase tickets and/or make a tax-deductible donation to honor 36 years of Visual AIDS today

Images clockwise from top left: THE AIDS CRISIS IS NOT OVER image from W. Benjamin Incerti in our slide archive; members of the Women's Empowerment Art Therapy Workshops make paper Valentine's cards at Dieu Donné for LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN; The Body As an Archive Oral History Project; a selection of the rich publications that come from research and work with our Archive; the 2022 premiere of Day With(out) Art at The Whitney; What is 21st Century Liberation at NYC Pride; early members of Visual AIDS creating the now iconic Red Ribbon Project; You care about HIV Criminalization activist broadsheet logo; Oral History Project Liaison Constantine Jones looking at materials in our Archive Study Room

Day With(out) Art premiere photo courtesy of Filip Wolak

VAVA 2024 flyer designed by Jean Foos featuring Soar (c 1989) by Lola Flash

VAVA VOOM 2024

Honoring Lola Flash, Philip Yenawine, and Brian Butterick (1956-2019)

Team Members