Jean Carolomusto and Jane Rosett: "Gay Men's Health Crisis: 20 Years Fighting for People with H.I.V./AIDS", April 21-September 10, 2001

An Exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York

Curators: Jean Carlomusto and Jane Rosett

Timeline

2001, April 21

Exhibit opens at The Museum of the City of New York.

2001, April 27

Saulny, Susan. "City Museum Is Accused of Altering Its AIDS Exhibit", New York Times, April 27, 2001. Excerpt:

The curators of a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York about a gay group's 20-year struggle against AIDS said yesterday that they were upset that museum officials softened the sexual content of some of their work and that the alterations changed the tone of their story.

The exhibit, Aids: A Living Archive, opened April 21 without a number of sexually graphic materials that some consider historically important, said Jane Rosett, who was the curator of the exhibit with her colleague and companion, Jean Carlomusto.

The exhibit, which is part of Gay Men's Health Crisis: 20 Years Fighting for People with H.I.V./AIDS, includes art and historical items documenting the public campaign against AIDS, as well as interactive informative elements for museum visitors.

Dr. Lawrence D. Mass, one of the founding members of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, said that the museum distorted the message of some of the pieces on display by ordering that they be altered. Dr. Mass, a physician who treats addictions, supplied some of the art from his collection.

It's very disturbing, he said. I've begun to feel very incensed about this and upset. They really are documents of art and history of the organization. In that sense it seems like real censorship and distortion of history.

Dr. Mass and Ms. Rosett said that photos were cropped to exclude images of intimacy between men, and that museum officials rejected representations of condoms in the show. Ms. Rosett also said she was told to exclude depictions of male genitals.

The curators, who were hired by the Gay Men's Health Crisis, said that they were not advised of any overall museum guidelines when they started work on the exhibit, and that they found the absence surprising. When asked to talk about their guidelines or say what was excluded from the show, museum officials declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the museum, Sabeth Ryan Albert, said in a statement: "It would be unfortunate if the important messages of this exhibition were obscured by other agendas."

Marty Algaze, a spokesman for the group, said the artists and Dr. Mass did not speak for the organization, which is very proud of the exhibit. He said the group, a treatment and advocacy group for people with AIDS, understood the compromises that were necessary to have a partnership with the museum.

"I was told the museum gets a large number of children and some sexually explicit material would be inappropriate for them to see, he said. If you're having a discussion about sexual issues with gay men, you might be more graphic. It would be different if you're talking to young people, or to the public, or a group of politicians for that matter."

But the curators said any exhibit dealing with AIDS and sexual issues should be as unfiltered as possible, in the interest of public health education. They added that a history of AIDS could not be fully told if references to sex were deleted.

"AIDS is not pretty, AIDS is not Disney, Ms. Rosett said. We didn't submit anything for shock value for its own sake. We edited and culled from hundreds of images. We submitted what we considered to be the most crucial documents of the movement's history."

One such work, a poster entitled 800 Men, had been cropped to such an extent that its meaning was altered, Dr. Mass said. It is from the group's first prevention program and fund-raiser, and was intended to advocate the use of condoms. At the museum, however, only the words are visible and the overall effect is lost, he said. An image of two men was taken out.

Ms. Rosett said she included some materials over museum officials' objections, and even slipped a few items in, one being a keychain in the shape of winged male genitals. She said the keychain was important because it showed that some people with AIDS were able to maintain a sense of humor.

Ms. Rosett also said that, against the museum's objections, she included part of a poster that reads Great Sex! Don't Let AIDS Stop It. The poster, which was meant to tell bathhouse patrons about AIDS prevention, was altered so that a graphic cartoon and disease prevention tips were removed, she said. . . .

2001, May 5

MacDonald, Robert R., Dir., Museum of the City of New York. "Museum's AIDS Show". New York Times. Letters to the Editor. May 05, 2001.

To the Editor:

Re Censorship and AIDS (letter, May 3):

Museums are responsible for the materials and messages presented in their galleries. Gay Men's Health Crisis: 20 Years Fighting for People With H.I.V./AIDS, developed by the Museum of the City of New York in collaboration with the Gay Men's Health Crisis, presents an important chapter in New York City's history of confronting epidemics.

With the goal of presenting that story to the widest possible audience, the museum and the Gay Men's Health Crisis decided that sexually explicit images would not be included in the exhibition. To characterize that decision as censorship demonstrates a misguided view of the purpose of the exhibition and the professional responsibilities of museums. ... New York, May 3, 2001

2001, June 5

Dahir, Mubarak. "Making AIDS Easy on the Eye". The Advocate Jun 5, 2001