'It opened my eyes to the problem of stigma on campus' : training art students to be HIV stigma commentators

In an attempt to create an AIDS-competent community at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), it is critical to connect HIV and AIDS curricula and co-curricular initiatives with communication campaigns that reach students who may not self-select to attend HIV and AIDS workshops. To this end in 2012, UCT ran four communication campaigns with concomitant anti-HIV-stigma peer education workshops for students on campus. This article provides insight into the initial teaching project developed and designed by the Michaelis School of Fine Art and HAICU (HIV/AIDS, Inclusivity and Change Unit) at the University of Cape Town to engage students in understanding the lived reality of HIV positive students on the campus. Initial findings from a focus group with first year fine art students indicate that the project is a great vehicle towards getting students to engage with what would be termed previously studied areas such as HIV. After this project's success the model utilised by the project team has been taken up by other departments at the University and possible further interdisciplinary collaboration for teaching students are being discussed.