On World AIDS Day Dec. 1, The Alphawood Gallery in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood will officially open the extraordinary and historic new exhibit for which the building was conceived and designed.

Since its Oct. 3, 2015 premiere at the Tacoma Art Musuem ( TAM ), Art AIDS America has been touring the country with pieces depicting the history of AIDS in the United States as seen through the uncompromising eyes and limitless creativity of the visual artist.

The Alphawood Gallery and the city of Chicago will be the exhibit's home until April 2, 2017.

The exhibit includes work that, for the most part, was never before seen until co-curators Chicagoan gay-rights activist Leslie-Lohman, Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art President Jonathan David Katz ( who is also director of the visual studies doctoral program at State University of New York-Buffalo ), and Tacoma Art Museum Chief Curator Rock Hushka began years of painstaking work.

Katz spoke with Windy City Times about that work and the life which gave rise to it.