AIDS is exploding into popular media arts. The realization that the disease will eventually touch everyone's lives has set the stage for artists to deal with the epidemic on the screen and in museums -- all to help the public come to grips with the issue.

Peg French, an assistant professor of theatre arts who played one of Tom Hanks' aunts in the movie Philadelphia, said it is important to understand the arts' role in motivating society's awareness of issues.

"Some people see AIDS as God's vengeance on homosexuals -- I don't want that kind of a god, thank you very much," French said.

But Sally Maud Robertson, co-executive director and director of education for the AIDS Project, 301 S. Allen St., said people are beginning to shy away from the belief that AIDS is a gay disease.

"The gay/bisexual male community has been very hard hit, but it is important not to make the leap of logic that (AIDS) is only a gay disease," Robertson said. But she added that AIDS is a "defining issue in the gay community."

Jeff Yarbrough, editor in chief of The Advocate, a gay magazine based in Los Angeles, agreed that the two issues are linked.

"They're two completely different issues, yet they intersect all over the place," Yarbrough said.

And those issues have emerged not only at Hollywood's urging, but the subjects are also being expressed in all art mediums and even being displayed locally. The visual arts have been affected by the epidemic, said Glenn Willumson, Palmer Museum of Art curator.

"Artists who see more and more of their friends die are using it as the basis for their artwork," Willumson said.

The museum has five Robert Mapplethorpe photographs on display. Mapplethorpe -- who died in 1989 of AIDS-related complications -- expressed sexual ambiguity in much of his work, such as a photograph of a nude, female body builder and a portrait of himself in drag, Willumson said.

The visual arts are not the only local medium to deal with AIDS and gay, lesbian and bisexual issues. Last semester, the University Resident Theatre Company dealt with AIDS through theater and music in its production Quilt. The musical was performed in conjunction with the display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt at University Park.

Although artists in the past have dealt with gay, lesbian and bisexual issues, those topics have been slow to break into the mainstream because they deal "with something that is really hard for us to talk about," Robertson said.

"We do not talk about sex very well," she said, adding that discussing AIDS and sex "takes away from the fantasy and inserts a little bit of reality."

Because of society's difficulty in facing these issues, Philadelphia was focused more toward straight people than the gay community, said Judy Levinson, a Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student Alliance social/educational co-director.

"People who are straight can identify with Denzel Washington's character," said Levinson (senior-political science). "He doesn't want to touch Hanks' character because (Hanks) represents AIDS in the flesh. Toward the end, (Washington) sees (Hanks) as a person, but doesn't necessarily approve of him. That's a small transformation that I think a lot of people can identify with."

Levinson also commended Philadelphia for "showing straight people that AIDS has a face that is very human."

But Dave Gelman (senior-premedicine) said Quilt was more realistic than Philadelphia because the play dealt with AIDS and gay issues more directly, adding that it captured the reality like a photo.

"Quilt is the way it works -- it's a snapshot effect," Gelman said.

But Levinson said it is sometimes better to ease the public into these issues.

"Change, in most ways, has to be incremental . . . because if you try and give someone too much to deal with, they're just going to back off completely," she said.