During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for… Keep fighting. Keep dancing.
– Dan Savage
The Victoria Arts Council is pleased to announce its presentation of STILL WITH US: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts — an ambitious project, two years in the making, that brings together local and international partners from the literary, performing, and visual arts communities, in association with a leading local health agency.
This cross-disciplinary project is anchored by an exhibition in downtown Victoria running from 24 October through 1 December 2025. Featuring archival materials, films, and visual art, the exhibit tells a multi-faceted story of loss, advocacy, and hope emanating from the first waves of the AIDS epidemic (1980s through 1990s) and Victoria’s remarkable response.
This fall, AVI Health & Community Services (formerly AIDS Vancouver Island) is marking 40 years since its foundation by five people who recognized the need to meet the challenge of the AIDS epidemic sweeping through our community. The AVI archive of advocacy and educational materials will be on display alongside original works of contemporary art by the likes of Victoria-born artist Joe Average (1957-2024), among others.
Exciting performance events are scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition at a variety of venues in Victoria including the Belfry Theatre and Pacific Opera’s Baumann Centre, with pop-up performances by the Gettin’ Higher Choir in downtown Victoria.
Greater Victoria Public Library is dedicating a themed display throughout the Fall at their Central Branch.
Now, four decades into the reality of AIDS, with an upsurge in new HIV diagnoses in Canada, and around the world this is a timely event that combines art with education and reflection in an impactful way.
STILL WITH US is a call to action, to remember and to education. “Keep fighting. Keep dancing.”
Image: William Douglas in his work Anima (1990) / Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann, Dance Collection Danse N D J 2013 MR
This unparalleled collaboration would not be possible without the following CO-PRESENTERS: The Belfry Theatre, Dance Collection Danse (Toronto), Dance Victoria, Intrepid Theatre, and Pacific Opera Victoria
COMMUNITY PARTNERS: AVI Health & Community Services, The Bay Centre, Greater Victoria Public Library, University of Victoria, Visual AIDS (New York)
CORPORATE SPONSORS: Castle Consulting Corporation; Tulipe Noire; Prestige Prestige Picture Framing Etcetera; Good Earth Coffee House, Willow Wealth Management
With financial support by: CRD Arts Services, Province of British Columbia (Community Gaming), BC Arts Council, The McLean Foundation, as well as Dance Victoria, Dance Collection Danse, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Canadian Heritage, with the additional support of incredible and generous private donors.
With sincere gratitude to the following generous donors:
Conrad Alexandrowicz, in memory of Michael Conway
Clayton Baraniuk and Jason Dubois
Scott Elias
Gordon Fulton
A & A King Family Foundation, in memory of Mr. Bruce Slatter
Dr. Allana Lindgren and Ted L. McDorman
Jan McMillan
Dave McMillan and Audrey Inouye
Bob Milne
Bernard Sauvé and Michael Scott Curnes
Michael Shamata
Andy Stephenson
Jon Tupper, in honour of Dr. Norbert (Nobby) Gilmore
Bill Hamar and Stephen White, in memory of so many lost friends
STILL WITH US: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts organizing committee: Sean Guist, Dr. Allana Lindgren, Kegan McFadden, Bernard Sauvé, Stephen White
If you are interested in making a financial contribution to STILL WITH US: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts, please consider making a donation today.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Exhibition | 24 October – 1 December | Tuesday – Sunday, 12-5
Still With Us: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts
Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre
1150 Douglas Street
Opening Reception: Sunday, 26 October from 1PM-4PM
Featuring work by Joe Average, Cathy Busby, Margo Farr, Margaret Flood, Peggy Frank, Jamie Griffiths, Anna Mah, Cookie Mueller, Myfanwy Pavelic, Lynda Raino, and Pam Terry, with selections from the archives of AVI Health & Community Services. This exhibition is curated by VAC Executive Director Kegan McFadden and augmented by the holdings of Dance Collection Danse, reflective of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the dance community, as selected by Christopher House, Guest Curator, and Amy Bowring Executive & Curatorial Director of DCD.
Thinking Cap with HIV, 1997
limited edition print
Courtesy of the Artist’s Estate
Staged Reading and Choral Performance
Saturday 1st of November, 7:30PM
The Belfry Theatre’s BMO Studio | 1291 Gladstone Avenue
The Wines of Tuscany [1996] by Conrad Alexandrowicz with Gettin’ Higher Choir
By donation
Reserve your seat today: https://www.belfry.bc.ca/event/wines-of-tuscany/
The Wines of Tuscany is a dance-play for two men about wine, opera, love, sex… and dying of AIDS.
Panel Discussion
Dancers for Life
Saturday 8th of November, 3PM | Reception to follow (sponsored by Good Earth Coffeehouse)
Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre
1150 Douglas Street
Free
Dancers For Life a discussion with the organizers of Victoria’s Dancers For Life Galas with the original organizers, discussing what motivated them to produce the events, highlights and memories from the events themselves and their lasting impact.
Panelists: Kim Breiland, Doug Durand, Stacey Leblanc, Anna Russo Kennedy, and Katrina Jensen | Moderator: Stephen White
Book Display and Reading List
16 November – 1 December
A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Literary Arts
Organized by Greater Victoria Public Library Central Branch
735 Broughton St
As part of Still With Us, the Victoria Arts Council has partnered with Greater Victoria Public Library to highlight a selection of their catalogue that speaks to the impact HIV/AIDS has had — and continues to have– on the literary arts.
All are encouraged to visit the Central Branch to see the display and borrow a title or two from this curated reading list, which includes works in fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and more by: Alexandra Billings, MK Czerwiec, Peggy Frank, Tomson Highway, Derek Jarman, Rebecca Makkai, Danez Smith, David Wojnarowicz, among others.
Performance Series
Friday 21st of November @ 7PM | Reception to follow
and Saturday 22nd of November @ 3PM | Reception to follow
The Baumann Centre
925 Balmoral Rd
Tickets are $10 – $100 available through INTREPID THEATRE as part of their Incoming Festival: https://intrepidtheatre.com/shows/still-with-us-performance-series/
STILL WITH US
Featuring: A welcome drum song from Aunty Collective; Saying Goodbye to My Brother, a remount by Lynda Raino of the duet she choreographed and performed with Shawn Costello (1961-1989) in 1988, co-presented by Dance Victoria; an excerpt from i am beauty, a new verbatim opera by librettist Rick Waines and composer Mary Jane Coomber featuring four vocalists and accompaniment, activating the HIV in My Day oral history research project housed at the University of Victoria; and The Viral Monologues featuring first-person accounts from the frontlines by AVI Health & Community Services affiliates, remounted by Intrepid Theatre.
** A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to AVI Health & Community Services (recognizing 40 years of support this year).
Poetry Reading
Wednesday 26th of November @ 7PM
Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre
1150 Douglas Street
By donation
The Living Room: an evening of poetry. Join current and former poets laureate of Victoria, Kyeren Regehr and John Barton, as they read from their work as well as work of poets lost to AIDS-related illnesses.
Book Launch
Saturday November 29, 2025 | 2PM @ Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre
1150 Douglas Street
By donation
There Are Things That Cannot Be Changed … creative writing is based on actual letters between Rwandan, Emerthe Nakabonye and Canadian Peggy Frank. The story unfolds from the first letters exchanged between two women who only knew that the other was also living with HIV.
Film Screening
Monday 1st of December (World AIDS Day) | 7PM
Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre
1150 Douglas Street
By donation
VAC in partnership with Visual AIDS (NY) presents, Day With(Out) Art screening of newly-commissioned films by HIV+ artists, “Meet Us Where We’re At”, featuring: Kenneth Idongesit Usoro (Nigeria), Hoàng Thái Anh (Vietnam), Gustavo Vinagre & Vinicius Couto (Brazil/Portugal), Camilo Tapia Flores (Chile/Brazil), Camila Flores-Fernández (Peru/Germany), José Luis Cortés (Puerto Rico)
Introduced with a performance by the Gettin’ Higher Choir
*This marks the 7th year in a row where VAC has brought the Day With(Out) Art screening to Victoria, courtesy of Visual AIDS.