Live Art Program Mission & Proposal Structure

About the New York City AIDS Memorial: 

The New York City AIDS Memorial honors the more than 100,000 New Yorkers who have died of AIDS and acknowledges the contributions of caregivers and activists who mobilized to provide care for the ill, fight discrimination, lobby for medical research, and alter the drug approval process. The Memorial aims to inspire visitors to remember and reflect through the maintenance of our permanent, architecturally significant Memorial as well as through educational and cultural programming. Read more about the Memorial here.

About Live Art Programming:.

Since 2020 the New York City AIDS Memorial has commissioned, produced, presented, and/or restaged a variety of Live Art programs, encompassing music, dance, performance, text, cinema, and other transdisciplinary forms.

The New York City AIDS Memorial is a triangular canopy of structural steel, extending from the convergence of West 12th Street and Greenwich Ave, and adjacent to a multi-use city park that borders 7th Avenue, in the shadow of where St. Vincent’s Hospital, an epicenter of care during the height of the epidemic, once stood (view images of the Memorial here).

As a performance venue, the monument acts as a “white box” theater for stories, movement, sounds, and images.  With no boundary separating the Memorial canopy from busy Greenwich Village streets, passers-by become part of the audience. City sounds are its silence. St. Vincent’s Triangle is a park for New Yorkers and visitors of all demographics, including families, small children, elderly, unhoused, disabled, tourists, locals, and Long-Term HIV/AIDS Survivors. Unlike private, interior spaces, this includes individuals who do not consent to being part of an audience. By necessity, all programs must prioritize the safety of the greater public.

The Live Art program accepts proposals that pay respect to those lost to AIDS and gathers communities affected by life during an epidemic. The site provides a respectful container for dialogue, nostalgia, joy, rage, love, extravagance, futurity, LGBTQIA+ expression, healing, awareness, and meditation.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Please use the form below to apply. Contact us with any questions.

Application :

Please note: This application form does not autosave, and entries may be lost if you close or refresh this page. We recommend copying and pasting your answers from a separate document.

Downloads:

Proposal Notes:

  • Live Performance events are typically held on weekday early evenings and/or on weekend afternoons and early evenings, lasting less than one hour.  

  • From time to time, temporary visual art installations are on exhibit at the Memorial or in the adjacent park.

  • Events can happen in various parts of the park other than under the canopy structure.

  • The New York City AIDS Memorial supports events held off-site or with a partner presenter. Please indicate this in your project proposal.

  • The Memorial does not accept projects that utilize weapons (fake or real), signage or printed materials that include hate speech or hate symbols, and/or supplies that will mark up, stain, distress, leave detritus upon, or damage the monument structure, fountain, benches, or granite floor.

  • NYC Parks may ask to review proposals in advance of approving event permits.

  • If your proposal is selected to be developed, the New York City AIDS Memorial will provide:

    • Permits

    • Contracted audio-visual team to provide basic sound and projection design

    • Photo documentation

    • Marketing and PR

    • Budget and honoraria