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U.S. national AIDS museum: why it was time for the U.S. to have an AIDS museum
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Thailand has one and so does South Africa. Now the United States also has a National AIDS Museum. It originally opened with Eyes of Mercy gallery on November 11th, 2006, at Seton Hall University in South Orange.
"It's important to me [to start here] because that's where I work-I'm an alumnus," Ashley Grosso, AIDS Museum Executive Director, explained at the opening event. A Seton Hall graduate (with a major in diplomacy and international relations), Grosso is also a founding member of the Red Cross Club at the campus through which she became interested in HIV/AIDS. When members of the Club brought to school a panel of the AIDS memorial quilt, she became interested in using artwork as a tool to raise AIDS awareness and educate people about the pandemic-hence the idea of a National AIDS Museum.
To this day, the AIDSmuseum and its travel exhibits showcases AIDS-inspired works of artists from across the country:
Watercolor artist Bob Armstrong of New Jersey. He is also an AIDS advocate, who talks about AIDS prevention and shares his own survival stories.
Photography artwork by Kurt Weston of California, who has lost most of his sight to CMV retinitis. His displayed artwork deals with the physical and emotional impact that visual loss can have on an individual. His Journey Through the Darkness is the exhibit's feature photograph.
The National AIDS Museum has found a permanent home in Newark. The exhibit has traveled in New Jersey and New York City area, and all over the country.
