Director's Foreword
Lisa Tung
Director of Curatorial Programs
Bakalar and Paine Galleries
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Boston, MA

Four years ago, MassArt officially changed its name to Massachusetts College of Art and Design to better reflect the college's full range of programs and considerable impact on the region's creative industry. Named one of the Top Global Design Schools by BusinessWeek magazine, MassArt has a history in which design programs are a vital part of the curriculum.

As a college gallery, the Bakalar and Paine Galleries' mission is based in academics. The galleries are instrumental in the development of the artist, art educator, or designer, and contribute to the public's understanding of the arts. Our ?exhibitions supplement curriculum and help shape and inspire students, while validating future art and design professions. As the college's premier exhibition space, the Bakalar and Paine Galleries also take advantage of our scholarly community and collaborate with faculty as curators of specialized exhibitions.

I am pleased to open our 2010–2011 exhibitions season with Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985–2010. Curated by Professor and Chair of Graphic Design Elizabeth Resnick and Javier Cortés, Partner and Creative Director at Korn Design, this exhibition showcases a stunning depiction of AIDS awareness posters for our generation. Visceral, graphic, intense, and fearless, this exhibition is also a sequel to the widely successful Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice, and the Environment: 1965–2005 exhibition curated by Resnick, MassArt Professor of Graphic Design Chaz Maviyane-Davies, and Professor of Graphic Design Frank Baseman from Philadelphia University. The Graphic Imperative traveled to seventeen US and three international venues and I have no doubt that Graphic Intervention will follow suit.

While organizing The Graphic Imperative in 2005, Resnick was told of a large archive of AIDS posters by Boston-based poster collector James Lapides, and in 2009 with Cortés, systematically looked through and culled thousands of posters down to 153. Graphic Intervention is a demonstration of policies and approaches taken by over 44 countries to address the AIDS epidemic. This exhibition deftly champions pertinent socio-political issuesmdash;world health, international relations, sexual education, social prejudices, discrimination, disease research and eradication—in a remarkable way, proving that art and design can help change the world.