October 2018 Newsletter

October 25, 2018

October 2018 Quick Links Our Website Donate Now Email Us       FAM Board of Directors      Mark Lehman, Chair    Irwin Rappaport, Vice-Chair    Craig Dougherty, Treasurer    J. Hobart, Secretary      Bobby Benveniste    Bruce Brown    Peggy Callahan Rogerio Carvalheiro    Bobby Heller    Mark Itkin    Jason H. Kennedy    Irene Kim, MD    Jorge Mellado    Michael Nutt    Stephen Simon    Dimple Thakkar    Marc Ware    Todd Williamson       John Gile    Development Consultant Special Thanks   Foundation for The AIDS Monument is extremely grateful and honored to recognize our naming sponsors who have donated or pledged to donate $100,000 or more. Naming Sponsors Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Foundation Visit West Hollywood County of Los Angeles State of California   We’d also like to offer a very special thank you to those who have donated or pledged to donate $25,000 or more. AIDS Healthcare Foundation Patricia Anawalt Neal Baer Larry Block Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Thomas Buttgenbach Foundation Bruce Brown Takashi Cheng Enrique Cheng-Robles, MD Nevin Dolcefino Craig Dougherty & Tony Leonhardt GUESS Foundation Bobby Heller & Charly Shahin Kevin Huvane Mark Itkin & Bradley Bayou Elton John AIDS Foundation Kathy Griffin Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation Eugene LaPietra Foundation Mark Lehman & Gabriel Pacheco Bryan Lourd & Bruce Bozzi MAC AIDS Fund Tom R. McClay & Mike Feddersen Jerome Murray & Jason Gallaher Jonathan Murray & Harvey Reese Irwin Rappaport Herb Ritts Foundation Mike Rose & Ruben Rodriguez The Shulman Family Foundation Sharon Stone Bruce Stuart Ruth Tittle Marc Ware Silva Watson Moonwalk Fund Wells Fargo Trammell Whitfield J & Mary Wilberding-Hobart Kevin W. Williams ______________________________ Foundation for The AIDS Monument was recently named a Gold GuideStar Nonprofit participant! This leading symbol of nonprofit transparency and accountability is presented by GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. Check out our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile and tell us what you think! ________________________ Hold a Fundraiser on Facebook for Stories: The AIDS Monument Please consider raising money to benefit Stories: The AIDS Monument. If you’d like to create a Facebook fundraiser for us, please follow the instructions below: 1. Visit our Facebook Fundraising Page and select “+Raise Money“ 2. The Basics – Choose how much you would like to raise (i.e. $1,000) and when the fundraiser should end. 3. Tell Your Story – Here you can change the title of the fundraiser and add in any message you want to include as to why you are fundraising for us! 4. After completing your message, click create to include the pre-set cover photo and create your fundraiser! 5. Invite all of your friends to donate and help you reach your goal! If you are having difficulty creating a fundraiser for us, please watch this tutorial video! Thank you for supporting Stories: The AIDS Monument! _____________  FOLLOW US:  @TheAIDSMonument    @TheAIDSMonument    @TheAIDSMonument Tony Valenzuela is Named Executive Director of The Foundation for The AIDS Monument   The Board of Directors of The Foundation for The AIDS Monument (FAM) is pleased to announce that Tony Valenzuela has been selected to be the organization’s next Executive Director.   Valenzuela is a longtime community activist and nonprofit leader in LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS, and arts communities. He most recently served as Executive Director of Lambda Literary for nine years where he presided over significant revenue and programmatic growth.   “We’re thrilled that Tony Valenzuela has come on board as our new Executive Director at this crucial time for our organization,” said Board of Directors Chair, Mark Lehman. “In the upcoming year Tony will lead us through the final design development of the AIDS Monument art piece, work with us to continue our remarkable fundraising efforts, and marshal our resources to flesh out and expand the development and delivery of online and on-site content and programming. Tony brings with him a unique set of management skills, vast experience in the non-profit arena, and expansive contacts in and connections with the local and national HIV/AIDS community that will be great assets for FAM going forward. I personally look forward to working hand in hand with Tony to realize FAM’s and West Hollywood’s dreams for what the AIDS Monument will be.”   Previously Mr. Valenzuela had worked at Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services in Los Angeles, and the LGBTQ Community Center in San Diego. Since the 1990’s he has been a leader in the gay men’s health and HIV/AIDS communities.    “No issue has shaped my life as profoundly as the AIDS epidemic,” said Valenzuela. “Today, as we reflect on the darkest years of the 1980’s and 90’s and continue to grapple with an intractable epidemic, especially in communities of color, I consider it paramount to understand where we’ve been and where we’re going, to honor the legacies of the hundreds of thousands of brilliant souls lost to the plague in the U.S., and to educate the public about the history of the epidemic so that we never face a similar calamity again.”   STORIES: The AIDS Monument will memorialize the devastation of AIDS on our nation, and will honor the courage of activists, caregivers, and community leaders, while creating community programming to address the cultural impact of the AIDS crisis. The Monument will be in West Hollywood Park, the most prominent public space in the City. It will be a work of art with global significance, and an iconic landmark for the City. The AIDS Monument Fundraising Updates We are pleased to announce that the State of California awarded a $250,000 grant to help build the Monument, thanks to the dedicated advocacy and commitment of California State Senator Ben Allen. Additionally, Assembly Member Richard Bloom helped carry the measure through the State Assembly. Thanks to the advocacy efforts in Sacramento of our development consultant John Gile, former Executive Director Michael Ferrera, and Board member Stephen Simon, and numerous community partners who helped bring this forward. The grant was announced by Sen. Allen at a fundraising event on June 28th at the home of Mitch Hollander and Mike Mooney. The same night, John Gile announced that Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning producer and New York Giants Chairman Steve Tisch pledged a generous $100,000 donation. The Tisch family have been extraordinary philanthropists in the fight against AIDS since the very early days of the epidemic.  The event featured an emotional and entertaining speech from our honored guest and Council of Advisors member Sheryl Lee Ralph.     Special thanks to Eric McCormack, star of Will & Grace for hosting a cocktail party at the home of Mark Itkin and Bradley Bayou. Eric and his wife Janet have been supporting the Monument since its inception and helped raise an additional $50,000 at this event thanks to the support of Takashi Cheng and Linda Janger, who both made leadership gifts to the Foundation, and many other donors that we proudly welcome to our Monument donor circle.    We invite you to visit STORIES: The AIDS Monument’s refreshed website to share your stories, watch moving videos, and keep up with the ongoing progress of the AIDS Monument. The Unit: Lessons on Living and Dying On September 25th Cedars-Sinai and STORIES: The AIDS Monument hosted a screening of The Unit: Lessons on Living and Dying, a short documentary feature produced by STORIES Board Member Peggy Callahan. Throughout much of the 80’s and 90’s, there was a strong dedicated team of individuals who devoted themselves to treating and caring for patients who otherwise would have gone untreated. This short film celebrates those who worked on this unit and educates us about the heroes who stepped up when much of the world stepped away. The evening was emceed by board member Jason Daley Kennedy, featured remarks by Cedars Chief Advancement Officer Art Ochoa, and concluded with a remarkable panel discussion, moderated by Peggy and featuring STORIES Advisory Council Member Dr. Michael Gottlieb, as well as Jennifer White-Gellar, Dee Dee Klute, Peter Anderson and Dr. Eric Daar, all of whom were featured in the documentary. Look for more panel discussions and screenings in late 2018 and next year as we continue to tell your STORIES! Please visit our website and make a donation at www.aidsmonument.org. Foundation for The AIDS Monument is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization.

 

STORIESTelling: A Conversation on Hollywood & HIV/AIDS

May 12, 2019

On April 10th, 2019 STORIES: The AIDS Monument hosted STORIESTelling: Hollywood & AIDS. The panel discussion featured industry leaders in conversation about Hollywood’s response to HIV/AIDS and how HIV/AIDS impacted Hollywood. We were honored to have Lee Daniels, Nevin Dolcefino, Brian Graden, Daniel Lipman, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Howard Rosenman, and Bruce Vilanch as our panelists with moderator Karl Schmid. Did you miss the event? No worries! We recorded it live on our Facebook page here.

STORIES: The AIDS Monument Brunch in Hancock Park

May 12, 2019

On March 31, 2019, Mike Rose & Ruben Rodriguez hosted a brunch fundraiser at their beautiful Hancock Park home for STORIES: The AIDS Monument. Guests included Wilson Cruz and Adam Rippon who each spoke at length about the importance of The AIDS Monument for the community. At the end of their powerful calls-to-action, thanks to our generous guests, the Foundation raised over $120,000, which included a $50,000 match from the Herb Ritts Foundation. Among the guests who generously donated was Jane Lynch who gave $25,000 and later encouraged her social media followers to support as well. See Jane’s Instagram post here. 

PHOTO19: A Benefit for STORIES: The AIDS Monument

May 12, 2019

PHOTO19 is the next in the series of premiere Fine Art Photography Auctions benefiting STORIES: The AIDS Monument, as we build an internationally recognized Monument and landmark in West Hollywood Park that will remember our loved ones lost to the AIDS epidemic, celebrate the activists and caregivers who courageously changed the world, and continue to educate the public about the history and cultural impact of the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

PHOTO19 will be an extraordinary assemblage of photography presented by FAM and hosted by the globally esteemed LEICA brand at their stunning Leica Gallery Los Angeles, located just steps away from the footprint of the coming Monument.

Kick-off Gala Thursday, June 6th, 2019

Tickets $175: On Sale Now Click Here

Leica Gallery Los Angeles
8783 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90048

Jonas Akerlund
Tanya Alexis
Steven Arnold
Don Barletti
Mathieu Bitton
Sean Black
Sylvie Blum
Ed Caraeff
Michael Childers
Jesse Diamond
Brad Elterman
Colin Finlay
Jimmy Fontaine
Anthony Friedkin
Eric Garcetti
Greg Gorman
Alexandra Hedison
Carl Hopgood
Dennis Hopper
Douglas Kirkland
Gary Johns
Annie Leibovitz
Julian Lennon
Blake Little
Antonio Lopez
Greg Lotus
Roxanne Lowit
Gerd Ludwig
Jeaneen Lund
Jim Marshall
Jim McHugh
Patrick McMullan
Nicolas Moore
Neal Preston
Melanie Pullen
Norman Reedus
Mel Roberts
Herb Ritts
Ed Ruscha
Norman Seeff
Mark Seliger
Stewart Shining
Nikki Sixx
Paul Solomon
Miranda Penn Turin
Nick Walker
Julian Wasser
Cliff Watts
Shen Wei
Timothy White
Firooz Zahedi
Lloyd Ziff

PHOTO19 Event Committee:
Co-Chairs: Paris Chong, John Gile, Bobby Heller, Kipton Cronkite, Patricia Lanza
Bianca Chen
Beth Rudin DeWoody
Patrick Grosso
Lane Janger
Maureen Keevancy
Paul Kopeikin
Melanie Pullen
Tony Valenzuela
John Wolf
Firooz Zahedi

EVENT SPONSORS

The Shulman Family Foundation

Spring 2019 Executive Director’s Note

May 12, 2019

Dear Friends,

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked as FAM’s Executive Director is When is the Monument going to be finished? Here’s an update on the progress so far.

STORIES: The AIDS Monument will be the very last section completed in the major renovation currently underway at West Hollywood Park. To be located along San Vicente Boulevard just north of the steps of West Hollywood library, the Monument will stand where the old red brick recreation center now sits. The park construction timeline provided to FAM by the City of West Hollywood has us breaking ground in summer or fall of 2020. A major Dedication event for STORIES: The AIDS Monument is planned for early to mid-2021. It’s important to note that delays are common with large scale construction projects. While we believe groundbreaking and construction of the Monument are on the horizon, unforeseen delays could push our Dedication slightly further out. I’ll continue to share progress about the Monument’s construction in future newsletters.

Last month at a STORIESTelling event we hosted at NeueHouse, a number of prominent industry leaders gathered to talk about the impact of HIV/AIDS on Hollywood from the early days of the epidemic to the present. The conversation about films, documentaries, and TV shows that featured AIDS storylines brought back powerful memories. In 1985, when I was in the 11th grade, I locked myself in my bedroom to watch An Early Frost, the first major film about AIDS to air on network television. Starring Aidan Quinn, the Emmy-winning film is about a closeted gay man who learns he has AIDS and decides to disclose his homosexuality and his illness to his family. It was terrifying and devastating to watch as a 16 year old. And yet, that movie was profoundly important to me as a closeted gay high school student. Although I had never met an openly gay person much less anyone with AIDS in suburban 1980’s San Diego, in that film I could see a version of my future life even if some of it seemed bleak. My family is Mexican and Italian, not anglo like the film’s protagonist, but I still identified with his plight. That’s the power of the arts, of film and TV. That’s the power of stories. It was, therefore, a great honor to have the co-writer of An Early Frost, Daniel Lipman, among the panelists. I was able to tell Mr. Lipman that his film gave me a roadmap to navigate my percolating gay identity in the midst of the AIDS epidemic when before it I had none.

I invite you to learn more about our Hollywood & AIDS panel conversation here which, in addition to Mr. Lipman, also featured Lee Daniels, Nevin Dolcefino, Brain Graden, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Howard Rosenman, and Bruce Vilanch.

Approximately one year out from the Monument’s unveiling, FAM will be introducing a series of community engagement programs to inspire, educate and involve the citizens of West Hollywood and Los Angeles with STORIES. You’ll be hearing much more about FAM’s future programming later this year.

With much gratitude,

Watch the Award-Winning The Unit: Lessons on Living & Dying

May 13, 2019

The Unit: Lessons on Living & Dying

We invite you to see the critically acclaimed film The Unit: Lessons on Living and Dying, a short documentary feature directed by STORIES Board Member and filmmaker, Peggy Callahan.

Throughout much of the 80’s and 90’s, there was a strong dedicated team of individuals who devoted themselves to treating and caring for patients who otherwise would have gone untreated. This short film celebrates those who worked on this unit and educates us about the heroes who stepped up when much of the world stepped away.

The Unit has received numerous accolades including from Best Short of 2018, Impact Docs, the Independent Shorts Awards, the Mindfield Film Festival Los Angeles, Accolade Competition, Indie Short Fest, and the Queen Palm International Film Festival.

WATCH NOW

Start Fundraising on Facebook

January 22, 2018

Now it’s easier than ever to raise funds for us! Use the “Fundraiser” function on our Facebook page and create a Fundraiser today! It’s so simple, all you have to do is click this link: https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheAIDSMonument/fundraisers/