“Art For AIDS” nets $10,000 for Burnett Centre

PRESS RELEASE: March 3, 2008

“Art For AIDS” nets $10,000 for Burnett Centre

Sales of artwork donated by the internationally-renowned artist Billy Apple have resulted in a $10,000 windfall for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation’s Burnett Centre.

Fifty “Art For AIDS” screenprints on white acrylic were originally produced especially for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation by Billy Apple for World AIDS Day 2000. Several were sold during last year’s Art Aid auction, an independent fundraiser held by the Art Aid Foundation Trust, from which a cheque was recently presented to NZAF.

Billy Apple is one of New Zealand’s best-known artists, emerging to prominence through the New York school of Pop Art in the 1960s (which saw a collaboration with Andy Warhol) and the Conceptual Art movement in the 1970s.

“On behalf of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, I would like to express my thanks for Billy’s generous donation of artwork which has enabled this sum to be raised,” says Eamonn Smythe, NZAF Acting Executive Director.

“This contribution will assist us greatly with the Burnett Centre’s mission of providing confidential and free HIV testing and counselling services for all New Zealanders, irrespective of race, gender, age or sexual orientation.”

The Burnett Centre will open in new premises on Monday March 10 at 35 Hargreaves St in College Hill. The expanded space has been designed to help ease increasing demands on HIV support services in Auckland.

The last four years have seen substantial increases in the number of new HIV diagnoses, particularly among gay and bisexual men. One gay or bisexual man is diagnosed with HIV every five days in New Zealand, with the majority of these diagnoses occurring in the Auckland region.

BURNETT CENTRE CONTACT DETAILS:
35 Hargreaves St, College Hill
Ph (09) 309 5560
Fax (09) 302 2338
Email: contact.burnett@nzaf.org.nz

ENDS

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