Sections of the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt — the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 94,000 individuals lost to AIDS — will be on display this December at Mohawk Valley Community College in honor of World AIDS Day (Dec. 1). This free display of The Quilt, sponsored by MVCC Student Congress, is open to the public and is being hosted by MVCC’s LGBTQ Committee, which is asking the community for help in making the event even more meaningful to the Mohawk Valley.
If you would like the display to include a specific panel of The Quilt representing a family member or loved one, please contact LGBTQ Committee Chair Carolyn DeJohn with your request at 315-792-5300 or cdejohn@mvcc.edu<mailto:cdejohn@mvcc.edu>. The committee will collect requests to submit to the NAMES Project Foundation, which are due on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017.
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The Quilt began with a single 3 x 6 foot panel created in San Francisco. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 48,000 individual 3 x 6 foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe, and have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world. In a war against a disease that has no cure, The Quilt has evolved as a potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, The Quilt helps teach compassion, triumphs over taboo, stigma and phobia; and inspires individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends, and community.
“These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of individuals who have lost their lives to AIDS,” says Julie Rhoad, executive director of The NAMES Project Foundation. “We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing, and personal responsibility. We thank MVCC for hosting this event, and we invite you all out to see what wonderful art we have created together as a nation.”
For more information on the display at MVCC in Utica, please call 315-792-5300. For more information on The NAMES Project and The AIDS Memorial Quilt, visit www.aidsquilt.org<https://www.aidsquilt.org/>.
