John A. Schweitzer is known as a Canadian artist and art collector, as well as an early leader in AIDS activism, holding the first AIDS benefit auction in Canada, Art against AIDS, in 1986. In 1990 he chaired An AIDS Benefit for Actors in Montréal and in 1994 he founded The John A. Schweitzer Foundation, a private trust in support of visual artists with AIDS. He often spoke out on the subject in interviews, at conferences, and in other public forums. Additionally, he collaborated with and exhibited works by Robert Mapplethorpe, a well-known contemporary visual artist who suffered from the disease.