Esther McGowan, who since 2017 was executive director of Visual AIDs, a contemporary arts organization committed to raising awareness of HIV and AIDS, will step down at the end of May, art news reports. She will join the nonprofit Aperture Photography Foundation in June as Director of Development, responsible for leading the organization’s fundraising campaign ahead of its 2024. move to a new home.
McGowan came to Visual AIDS in 2012 as associate director. During her tenure there, she significantly raised the organization’s profile, increasing its staff and guiding its move to a larger space that houses its archives. Under her leadership, Visual AIDs focused on HIV-positive women, whose stories and plight have historically been overlooked. Collaborating with major institutions, including MoMA PS1, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Brooklyn Museum, the organization has hosted monthly Art Therapy Workshops for Women’s Empowerment, founded by the artist and activist Shirlene Cooper. McGowan also secured the international institution’s partnership for Visual AIDS’ annual Day With(out) Art program, and inaugurated a new fellowship and artist-centered oral history series. Under his leadership, the organization has expanded its list of publications, publishing in 2021 the first monograph focusing on the work of experimental mixed media artist Darrel Ellis, who died in 1992 of AIDS-related causes at the age of thirty. -three years.
“We are thrilled to continue the inspiring work that Esther has initiated, and at the same time, we want to express how much she will be missed by the Visual AIDS Board of Directors, staff and community,” the board wrote. administration of Visual AIDS in a press release. “Throughout she has demonstrated a deep commitment to the organization’s core mission and to its vibrant community of artists and activists.” The search for her replacement should begin shortly.
