Reflections on AIDS : Observance: Orange County artists, friends join others worldwide to mourn loss of thousands to the deadly disease. Condoms, awareness materials are also passed out at colleges.

On a day set aside to remind the world of the public health threat posed by AIDS, bells tolled, friends and relatives remembered and artists wept as Orange County paid tribute Wednesday to those who have died from--and those who are afflicted with--the deadly disease.

From the White House to local post offices and college campuses, World AIDS Day was observed under the theme “Time to Act”--a reminder that the disease has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Americans, including 1,760 in Orange County.

In the nation’s capital, the White House floodlights were turned off for 15 minutes Wednesday night, and post offices around the country began selling 29-cent stamps depicting the red ribbon that has become an international symbol of AIDS awareness.

At college campuses in Orange County, condoms and “Take Action” AIDS awareness kits were distributed by Youth Education Services, a part of the Garden Grove-based AIDS Response Program.

Sounding the call for students to take action, David M. Souleles, the head of UC Irvine’s sexual health program, said World AIDS Day is a “day (for students) to find out what’s going on and to take responsibility for their own health--to take action and to be part of the solution.”

Elsewhere, Auxiliary Bishop Michael Driscoll of the Diocese of Orange led a special Mass at Holy Family Cathedral to pray for those stricken by acquired immune deficiency syndrome; major arts organizations sponsored “Day Without Art,” a tribute to artists who have died from the disease; and health professionals gathered in Orange to dedicate the first-day issue of the AIDS awareness postage stamp.

Wearing a red ribbon and a button with a photo of her son, Barbara Davis, a 55-year-old Anaheim resident, purchased 100 AIDS postage stamps.

Davis told how her son, Gregory, had died of AIDS at the age of 28. The U.S. Postal Service’s issuance of the stamp, she added, is the “most wonderful and magnificent thing” to happen for the AIDS awareness campaign.

“Hopefully, it’s going to make the uneducated people become aware--maybe some of the people who are pointing fingers and who are discriminatory will stop and learn about the disease,” Davis said. “I’m going to put (the stamps) on everything. I don’t know if it will help save lives, but maybe some people will become more compassionate for those living with AIDS.”

At UCI, students received free kits containing safe-sex guidelines, a coupon for a free anonymous HIV test and two free condoms. Event sponsors also demonstrated how to use condoms.

“I have a hard time buying stuff like this,” Craig Olsen, 22, a junior, said as he stuffed his pockets with free condoms. “It’s easier when it’s out in the open. . . . It kind of breaks the ice.”

Students who helped organize the event said that many of their peers believe that they won’t get AIDS.

“We want to open people’s eyes. A lot of people feel like they’re immune,” said Neil Perry, 21, chairman of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Student Union. “I think everyone knows (condoms are) necessary. But they don’t want to take the time or the courage to protect themselves.”

But as AIDS awareness was promoted on college campuses, major arts organizations pursued a broader goal: to increase the public’s understanding of the disease and of its impact in the arts community.

With a large, colorful AIDS quilt as the backdrop--a quilt with the names and dates of death of some who fell victim to the disease--actors and singers staged “Vital Readings,” a gripping collage in which cast members read news articles, short stories and poems, and singers sang songs that put a face on the epidemic that has cut deeply into the art community worldwide.

All artists “are subject to this silent killer,” said Newport Harbor Art Museum Chief Curator Bruce Guenther, “and Day Without Art is meant to acknowledge the art community’s loss and to call for a redoubling of efforts to find a cure and to find a way to make (the public) more aware” of the epidemic.

Although assuming characters as they read, many actors shed tears over the disease that has devastated the theater as well as the dance and visual art worlds.

“The death of a child is the death of the future,” one actor recited.

“Once you have your arms around your friend, with his terrible news, your eyes are too shut to cry,” said another. A third added: “I’m only 27, but I can’t breathe.”

The production, a collaboration of 11 arts groups, was part of the fifth annual Day Without Art observance. Other groups included Opera Pacific, the Pacific Chorale and the Master Chorale of Orange County.

Day Without Art, an international observance, was initially marked largely by theaters, museums and galleries closing down or canceling performances as an indication of what the world would be like if AIDS deaths literally brought about a day without art.

The 11 groups had hoped to attract a larger audience than last year, when two major events occurred concurrently in Costa Mesa for Day Without Art. But “Vital Readings” drew only about 270 people, about 80 less than the total for last year.

Gary M. Mattison, development director for the Orange County Philharmonic Society, one of the participating groups, said the SCR event’s lunch-hour timing may explain the lack of a larger crowd. A reluctance to face the horrible reality of AIDS and illness may be the cause as well, he surmised.

“But the purpose of this is awareness,” Mattison said after the 90-minute SCR event, “and we’ll keep doing it until there’s a cure for AIDS. Plus, even if we touched only one person’s life, I think we accomplished what we set out to do.”

Times correspondent Debra Cano contributed to this report.