Art, Fashion, AIDS, Activism: Meet the Faculty – Avram Finkelstein

“There is no way out of the fact that history is capital. So people own it, there are fiefdoms, and the people who write history get to become the experts in their field.” FUSE

MEET THE FACULTY: AVRAM FINKELSTEIN.

Red-diaper baby, activist, Sassoon creative, artist, and writer, Avram Finkelstein will be teaching two courses at CALA this summer. A founding-member of Gran Fury, the art/activist collective most closely associated with ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and with the iconic and powerful Silence=Death poster, which predates ACT-UP and was produced by The Silence=Death Project of which Finkelstein was also a founding member. It is exciting that he will be teaching a history course at NYUSPS with a focus on the central questions of who gets to tell the story, why they get to tell it, and how it’s told. Click on link below for details and to register.

MAKING MEANING OF HIV: CONSTRUCTING AN ETHICAL AIDS HISTORIOGRAPHY

“How we speak about HIV has had us tied in knots for a generation. In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, what are the ethical considerations in attempting to construct the “history” of HIV/AIDS? And, what do artists, historians, journalists, archivists, and policy makers need to tackle when trying to make sense of the questions that HIV/AIDS raises about power, representation, and survival?” 

NAVIGATING THE BORDER BETWEEN ART & FASHION

Finkelstein will also teach a one-day review of the collaboration between artists and fashion designers from Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvadore Dali, to Cindy Sherman and Rei Kawakubo.  See link above for details and to register.

“This one-day workshop also covers the rise of the fashion editor as cultural kingmaker. We will discuss why art museums consider fashion so bankable; why art foundations love Seventh Avenue; and how fashion/art appropriations can spin out of control…”

Welcome Avram Finkelstein to CALA.

For more information avramfinkelstein.com and CALA Biography