the art of AIDS

Bren Brophy and Eliza Moodley

Brenainn (Bren) Brophy has been instrumental in promoting art as a method to fight AIDS and discrimination in South Africa for more than a decade. He was the Consultant Arts Curator for the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, 2000, and was invited by the community program of the XV International AIDS Conference (Bangkok, Thailand, 2004) to present a digital installation of the Artists Action Around AIDS exhibition, which he curated for the Durban Art Gallery. He is currently the Curator of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts Galleries, Durban, and continues to curate shows about HIV/AIDS.

Bren is a social science graduate of the University of Cape Town (Fine Art, Psychology and Philosophy). Prior to being appointed to his current position, he was the Programme Manager for the Culture, Communication and Arts Programme (CCAP) within HIVAN (The Centre For HIV/AIDS Networking at the University of KwaZulu-Natal), where he worked with Eliza Moodley and during which time he was interviewed by Paul Sendziuk for The Art of AIDS Prevention project.

Eliza Govender (nee Moodley) is a Lecturer in the Department of Culture, Communication and Media Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is also the Program Manager for the new Centre for Communication, Media and Society at the university. Eliza previously worked at HIVAN (the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking) and has extensive experience in research, project development and facilitation. Eliza's role consists of developing, coordinating and implementing community outreach programs and income generation projects with a particular focus on developing communication strategies that are entertaining and educational. Her research interests include community development and participatory action research, as well as entertainment education for health promotion.

Eliza completed a Masters degree in Health and Development Communication through the University of Oslo and KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently registered for her PhD in which she aims to investigate strategic design processes of HIV and AIDS communication interventions in South Africa.