Prompt 1 In what conditions can art help the public to process public crises, such as an epidemic?

Prompt 1: In what conditions can art help the public to process public crises, such as an epidemic?
To answer this large question, you should give each of the following smaller questions. Make sure to include quotations from each of the authors / texts mentioned in the prompt.
Start by drawing upon Angels in America and the AIDS Quilt as a case study: What meaning do Angels in America and the AIDS quilt ascribe to death and dying? Building upon this premise, what do these artifacts’ creators suggest is the relationship between death and community? (These first two questions should take you around four pages, together forming a “part.”)
Then explain: According to Plato and Benjamin, what aesthetic qualities help an artifact to catalyze or obstruct community mobilization for change? Do either Angels or the AIDS Quilt meet their standard(s)? (These questions should take you around four pages.)
In your conclusion, explain what the ACT UP community was like (as described in United in Anger), and explain one way in which it was or was not akin to the community in Angels’ epilogue.
Prompt 2: In what conditions can art cultivate public virtues, such as love?
To answer this large question, you should give each of the following smaller questions. Make sure to include quotations from each of the authors / texts mentioned in the prompt.
Start by drawing upon Angels in America and the AIDS Quilt as a case study: What value do Angels in America and the AIDS quilt ascribe to love (including romantic love)? Building upon this premise, what do these artifacts’ creators suggest is the relationship of love and politics? (These first two questions should take you around four pages, together forming a “part.”)
According to Nussbaum and Sontag, what aesthetic properties must be present to transform an audience from being passive spectators who watch art about love to becoming a mass movement acting with love? Do either Angels or the AIDS Quilt meet their standard(s)? (This third question should take you around three pages.)
In your conclusion, please provide your own assessment of the difference between what art and direct action can accomplish, using what you know of ACT UP from United in Anger to assess the validity of Kushner’s claim that “if art … has any political impact, and I believe it does, it seems to me that it’s most likely to have it by being effective as art” (44).