Register

Day With(Out) Art

in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery

Day With(out) Art is held each year as an international day of action and awareness in response to the AIDS crisis.

Day With(out) Art is held each year as an international day of action and awareness in response to the AIDS crisis. Founded in 1989 by a group of artists, more than 800 arts organizations, museums and galleries throughout the U.S. participated in the first iteration by shrouding artworks and replacing them with information about HIV and safer sex, locking their doors or dimming their lights, and producing exhibitions, programs, readings, memorials, rituals, and performances. 

Experience a variety of activities and tours centered at the National Portrait Gallery; along G Street NW; and at the MLK Library.

This program is presented in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and Archives of American Art with participation from the Humanities Truck, Whitman-Walker Health, and other community partners.

Ongoing (all day, 11:30-7:00 p.m.) | National Portrait Gallery

• Removing art from walls (all day)
• Curator-led walking tours of Felix Gonzales-Torres: Always to Return exhibition
• Activation of Felix Gonzales-Torres gallery spaces

11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. | National Portrait Gallery

• Film screening from Visual AIDS in McEvoy Auditorium
• Art activities, Whitman Walker table, and the DC Public Library's Library on the Go-Go Book Bike in Kogod Courtyard
• Mobile clinics from Whitman Walker Health (in front of the National Portrait Gallery, on G Street NW)
• Humanities Truck (in front of the National Portrait Gallery, on G Street NW)

1:00 - 3:00 p.m. MLK Library, Floor 1, East (New Books)
Listening Session: Voices from the AIDS Crisis 
Hear excerpts from oral history interviews devoted to the AIDS epidemic, AIDS activism, and art, selected from The People's Archive at DC Public Library and the Archives of American Art. Visitors are invited to drop in, listen, and discuss selected clips during this facilitated small group session. Note: this program will take place near the MLK Library's installation of a light string from the work "Untitled" (America) by Felix Gonzalez Torres.

3:30 - 4:30 p.m. | National Portrait Gallery, McEvoy Auditorium
Panel Discussion: A Collective Voice: A Conversation on Art, Culture, and Democracy
Join a discussion between the co-curators of the exhibition Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return, Charlotte Ickes and Josh Franco, with artists and former members of Group Material. The panelists will discuss how they, along with their peer Felix Gonzalez-Torres, used art and community to shift perspectives around culture, representation, and power in attempt to re-position equity within democracy. 

Upcoming events