"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

Day Without Art (DWA) began in 1989 as the national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. To make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone, and inspire positive action, some 800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first Day Without Art, shutting down museums, sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Since then, Day With(out) Art has grown into a collaborative project in which an estimated 8,000 museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS Service Organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part on both the national and international levels.

(source: http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/dwa/ )

Ten years ago the World Wide Web was finally getting popular.

I had created my own web pages since 1993, and I was finally at a job where, as a small part of the description, I could use the web as a means for communication. It was quite revolutionary at the time.

Ten years ago today there was an initiative in which I participated as a "webmaster." We would be observing the "Day Without Art" on the web -- virtually placing dropcloths on all of our images for a dual purpose. Sure, we were mourning artists (and everyone) who had died of AIDS, but it was also a profound statement - something which would allow people to surf the then-newly blooming web and let them realize that something was different today.

Which is why today I've covered up my blog. Just even to let people know that, today, something is different. It's a day in which we have an obligation to make people think about HIV and AIDS. We can pride ourselves as a global nation about how far we've come with research and treatment to allow many of us who are living with AIDS to be healthy and active. We can be proud that AIDS education is reaching more people than ever before.

But we also need to see that our treatment and education are still reaching far, far fewer people than they need to reach.

Help spread the awareness.