Moments of silence will dampen the noise of the nation. Institutions will close their doors. And people will bow their heads Saturday and wonder – how would the world be without art?

On Saturday, the Day without Art, ISU students will pay tribute to the men, women and children whose lives have been taken by AIDS.

At 6:30 a.m. today, 24 students from the Introduction to Museums class and University Museum staff members shrouded five sculptures on campus in preparation for the event.

“We shroud the sculptures on Nov. 30, instead of Dec. 1 in order to have a greater impact on the campus and local communities,” said Matthew DeLay, curator of education for University Museums.

Day without Art lets people across the country reflect upon the artists who have been lost in the AIDS crisis, and it gives people a surreal visual of how the world would be if there were no art to appreciate, said Rachel Hampton, communications specialist for University Museums.

“Since many of us remain unaffected by the AIDS pandemic in our daily and personal lives, this event gives us the chance to educate ourselves about the massive impact AIDS has made in this world,” she said. “Students here at ISU can definitely benefit from this event because it gives them a global aspect on matters that go on outside of Ames.”

Five sculptures, including the Left-sided Angel at Parks Library, The Gentle Doctor at the Veterinary College, King Harvest at the Hawthorn Court Community Center, Border Crossing near LeBaron Hall and the Fountain of the Four Seasons at the Memorial Union, are shrouded to convey the solemn message.

“Most of them are sculptures of the human figure, which then relates to the effect of the human disease,” DeLay said. “Also, we were aiming to reach students in different areas of the campus. The piece in Hawthorn Court was selected because it is fairly new and to reach that student audience.”

The national Day without Art tradition began with the action of a few people.

In 1989, the art community of New York declared Dec. 1 as the Day without Art, in which many galleries closed their doors and shrouded paintings in mourning of the artists they’d lost to the disease. Eventually, this event spread across the nation, to the various art communities.

According to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Web site, 2.6 million people died of HIV or AIDS and 5.6 million became infected with HIV worldwide in 1999.

As of 2000, 33.6 million people worldwide were estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS, according to the Web site.

At Iowa State, students were assigned to study the sculptures in groups to make presentations about those specific pieces.

Anna Ziegenhorn, senior in anthropology, was assigned to the group that studied the Left-sided Angel, created by artist Stephen DeStaebler.

“It represents people and their vulnerabilities and the fragileness of the human skeleton,” Ziegenhorn said. “All of his works tend to be distorted or missing a limb.”

Ziegenhorn said she wondered why the art was covered every Dec. 1 until she took the Introduction to Museums course.

“Once I joined the class, I learned what it was all about,” she said.

Day without Art is intended to help students realize that some people don’t appreciate the art on campus – until it’s gone from sight, Ziegenhorn said.

Carrie Fry, junior in art and design, said the sculpture Border Crossing, created by Luis Jimenez, brings a cultural addition to campus.

“Campus is so culturally diverse and this piece holds much symbolism for the Hispanic students here,” she said. “The sculpture is actually of [Jimenez’s] grandparents crossing the border from Mexico into the United States.”

Hampton said Iowa State’s recognition of the Day without Art is the communities’ way to take part in the nationwide mourning.

“It’s taking a national event and bringing awareness home, here in Ames, to the attention of our community,” she said.