Last May, the Zuckerman Museum of Art hosted an exhibition titled “Art AIDS America.” The exhibit features different artistic responses to the AIDS epidemic in America and has toured the country.
The ZMA invited students on a field trip to the High Museum in Atlanta on Friday, Nov. 11, to hear a lecture by Jonathan Katz, art historian and co-curator of “Art AIDS America.” The lecture, titled “How AIDS Changed American Art,” focused on “Art AIDS America” and one of the High’s current exhibits, “Fever Within: The Art of Ronald Lockett.”
Katie Malone, the education and outreach manager at the ZMA, coordinated and chaperoned the event. The ZMA requested to co-host the lecture with the High, partially to save money but mostly because they saw the parallels between the two exhibits featured.
Ronald Lockett was an artist who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1998 at the age of 32. Many of his pieces portray his experience with being HIV-positive and developing AIDS, as well as showing his experience as a black artist living in the South after the Civil Rights Movement.
Katz’s lecture included information on the history of the AIDS epidemic in America, and he discussed the silence AIDS victims are often forced into. He explained that much of the art created about this topic is pushed to the side and not pursued by the general public. For example, the “Art AIDS America” exhibit has never been hosted at a large-scale, popular museum like the High, but at smaller, lesser-known museums like the ZMA.
Approximately 15 students attended the field trip and took a B.O.B. downtown, where they were given complimentary access to the lecture and the exhibit. The lecture lasted just over an hour and ended with a Q&A session.
An audience member who was not with KSU mentioned President Sam Olens. Katz expressing his disappointment, saying it looks as if KSU is taking a “step back,” given the controversy surrounding Olens’ appointment and his defense of Georgia’s ban on gay marriage when he served as the state’s attorney general.
After the lecture, the students toured the museum. The Ronald Lockett exhibit was particularly stirring after having heard Katz’s lecture, which offered a perspective that the students would not otherwise have been able to see.
The ZMA is hoping to sponsor more field trips like this one. Malone, the field trip’s coordinator, encourages students and staff alike to contact her if they have any ideas about future field trips. Students can follow the ZMA on Facebook and Twitter @ZuckermanMuseum to find out about upcoming events.
