Ithaca College has hosted 16 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt for over 10 years. Every year the Action for AIDS Committee is able to bring this humbling art display to our community because of the students who volunteer to staff the quilt.
This year's viewing dates are December 1-3, and we will celebrate the closing this year's exhibit with a ceremonial packing of the quilt. Contact Erica Shockley (eshockley@ithaca.edu) for more information.
We are looking for volunteers now! Volunteers help monitor the quilt, greet guests, act as a resource, and read names of those represented on this international art project.
Please contact Erica Shockley (eshockley@ithaca.edu or 607.274.1910) if you are interested in volunteering for this community event. There will be a volunteer training session Sunday, November 30, at 7:00 p.m. in Klingenstein Lounge.
The idea for the AIDS Memorial Quilt began in 1985 during a candlelight march in San Francisco, California. Gay rights activist Cleve Jones got the idea when, at the end of the march, he and others wrote the names of friends who had died from AIDS on cardboard and taped them to the federal building. When he looked back at the wall of names, it looked like a quilt.
In 1987, Jones and a group of friends got together and made the very first quilts, and began the NAMES Project Foundation. The last time the quilt was displayed in its entirety in Washington, D.C., was in 1996. The quilt had grown to over 46,000 panels, and it continues to grow.
The goals of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are to: provide a creative means for remembrance and healing, effectively illustrate the enormity of the AIDS epidemic, increase the general public's awareness of HIV and AIDS, assist others with HIV infection/prevention education, and raise funds for community-based AIDS service organizations.
The quilt was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize in 1989 and has raised over four million dollars for direct services for people with AIDS.
