On Saturday, World AIDS Day, Rowan County will experience a hint of what life would be like without art. Members of the Rowan Care Alliance (RCA) will shroud three local works of art: the Livingstone Bear, the East Innes Street fountain and the Jim Gallucci mobile at St. John’s Lutheran Church. Members of RCA will place the shrouds on Friday and remove them Sunday.
“The shrouds call attention to how central and important art is to our lives,” said Dr. Gordon Senter, president of Rowan Care Alliance. “They also remind us of all the talented artists who died in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.”
Shrouding art on World AIDS Day is a reminder that many in Rowan County are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Local HIV/AIDS Case Manager Stacey Cuevas estimates that there are 230 cases of HIV/AIDS in Rowan County. She currently manages the cases of 74 clients. Each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 50,000 new diagnoses of HIV/AIDS are made in the United States.
The city of Salisbury, Fine Frame Gallery, Livingstone College, Diversified Graphics, St. John’s Lutheran Church and sculptor Jim Gallucci assisted RCA with Day Without Art.
The mission of Rowan Care Alliance (RCA) is to improve the lives of people infected with HIV/AIDS and their families and to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through education and testing.
RCA is the beneficiary of funds to be raised at the FirstARTS concert at 7 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church. “We Will Remember Them” will feature the church chancel choir and various vocal artists. Matthew Michael Brown will conduct. The public is invited to the concert and to view sections of the AIDS Quilt in the nave of First United Methodist Church.
For information about Day Without Art, HIV/AIDS testing and speakers, contact Senter at 704-639-9580.