• the217
• Life
• HIV prevention & Artists Against AIDS

Related Media

Outside the Artist Against Aids exhibit at the Orpheum in Downtown Champaign. (Photo by Anne-Marie Cheely, Buzz Photographer)

• See Slideshow (2 images)

Sex 411:

Artists Against AIDS Exhibition & Sale

Orpheum Children’s Art Museum
346 N. Neil St. Champaign
Public Grand Opening
Friday April 24 6pm-10pm
Saturday, April 25 1pm-10pm
Sunday, April 26 1pm-7pm
Monday, April 27 1pm-7pm

See More About these Events

Artists Against Aids exhibition/fundraiser »

• Event has already occurred
• Orpheum Children's Science Museum »
  346 N. Neil St. Champaign, IL 61820
  (Show on map)

April is a busy month with respect to awareness campaigns in the area of sexuality. Not only is April Sexual Assault Awareness Month (prompting last week’s column on false reports of rape), but April is also STD Awareness Month and LGBT Awareness Days, including the Day of Silence, a national day recognizing violence and bullying against those who are LGBT.

This week, “Doin’ It Well” decided to take another look at an issue that intersects across all of these campaigns — HIV. The world, our country, and our own CU community have struggled to combat HIV for close to 30 years. While in the United States we have slowed the spread of HIV, 56,000 new cases are still diagnosed in the US each year. That number is still way too high. In our own backyard, people are being diagnosed and living with HIV/AIDS, both on campus and within Champaign-Urbana.

Preventing the spread of STDs, including HIV, isn’t as easy as it might seem, and we continue to struggle with how to keep people safe and healthy. Often, simplistic approaches are suggested; we expect to take a complex issue of sexuality and minimize it into a single message. Then we expect that message to work for every single person, in every single situation.

Fun, hot, healthy sex

We know we can’t prevent HIV with one column, but here are some risk reduction tips. By having a variety of options to reduce one’s risk, the hope is that folks can find a combination of things that work best for them in their specific situation.

• Use condoms every time, with every partner.
• Remember that getting HIV is not inevitable; it can be easily prevented!
• Choose not to have sex, or to postpone sex
• Get tested and talk to your partner(s) about being tested, too
• Engage in behaviors that avoid fluid exchange (semen, blood, vaginal secretions, breast milk); HIV is only transmitted by these fluids
• Avoid higher risk behaviors (receptive anal or vaginal sex, using someone else’s needles)
• If possible, keep sex sober to increase condom use & other safety strategies
• Limit your number of sexual partners
• Choose a monogamous relationship
• If you have HIV or another STD, inform your partners and discuss ways to be sexual while keeping your partner safe from infection

Unfortunately, HIV continues to be diagnosed, so along with prevention and education to stop the spread to HIV, we also have to continue to support those already infected (which, in turn, also helps to prevent future infections).

For Art’s Sake

That’s where Artists Against AIDS comes in. Artists Against AIDS is a fundraiser for the services provided by the Greater Community AIDS Project (GCAP). “Doin’ It Well” caught up with the coordinator of Artists Against AIDS, Tami Haubner. Here is what she had to say on behalf of the Artists Against AIDS planning committee:

Much has changed in the world since our last event, but the facts surrounding the epidemic of HIV/AIDS remain much the same and the numbers are growing. Education, awareness campaigns and medical research continue, but so does this virus.

We, the committee for this event, along with the staff and board of the GCAP organization, continue our efforts with one goal in mind: to savor the day we no longer have to work for this cause.

As we network through our community seeking donations of food, time, entertainment and supplies to furnish the best show possible, we are reminded without fail of the local generosity and support shown to this organization and those who suffer from this disease. For this we are eternally grateful to our many volunteers, sponsors and vendors who make the show happen, year after year. Our undying appreciation also reaches far and wide to the many artists who always come through with the most diverse and desirable pieces enticing us all to dig a little deeper for this worthy cause.

And last, but never least, we thank you, our customers and friends, for your never ending support for our organization. Without you we wouldn’t exist. But then again, that is the ultimate goal.

So come out this weekend and check out Artists Against AIDS! Donations from the Artists Against AIDS event — including ticket sales for the private opening, sponsorships, and a portion of the art sales - are GCAP’s largest private funding source. They account for about 1/3 of all the monies needed for direct assistance to the individuals GCAP serves who are HIV positive in our own community.

“Doin’ It Well” has a bunch of reader questions lined up to be answered. Keep sending them in, and check us out next week as we discuss taking back the night.