worldwide community arts project in missoula

AIDS Memorial Quilt Commemorates the Fallen and Brings Awareness

By Ryan Thompson, 9-19-08

	In this gallery, photographer Anne Medley documents Thursday's opening ceremonies for the AIDS Memorial Quilt at the University of Montana's Adams Center. The Quilt will be on display at the Adams Center through Sunday.

After losing friends and loved ones to AIDS, Gert McMullen became one of the first volunteers to show the AIDS Memorial Quilt, an on-going and worldwide community arts project.

“It really helped save my life,” McMullen said. “Inadvertently, I did help other people, and I’m glad for that.”

A powerful commemoration of those lost to AIDS, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is on display in the University of Montana’s Adams Center until Sunday afternoon. The quilt is a combination of different panels that friends, loved ones and family members have created to honor and remember their fallen. The panels are adorned with pictures, bits of poetry, handwritten letters and other elements. The quilt includes names from throughout the country, but each panel on display was requested by a Montanan affected by that person’s death, McMullen said.

“Our vow is to not let our loved ones be forgotten…we are honored to do so and will continue to until we don’t have to lose another person to AIDS,” McMullen said.

The traveling display is run by the NAMES Project Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in 1987 by San Francisco activists and friends to remember those AIDS has taken, McMullen said. The group collects hand-made quilts and displays them at schools, churches and other venues throughout the country and world. Missoula’s AIDS quilt panels are just one portion of the group’s overall collection, which includes more than 44,000 individual panels and has only been displayed in its entirety a handful of times in Washington, D.C.

“The quilt is so powerful,” said Keri McWilliams, director of the Missoula AIDS Council. “It’s mixed emotions…you’re recognizing loved ones but also know that the names are continuing to grow.”

McWilliams, UM president George Dennison and others spoke during the quilt’s opening ceremony on Thursday afternoon, which included a reading of every name on the quilt.

Along with commemorating those taken by AIDS, the quilt serves as an intense reminder of the reality of HIV infection.

“I think people who come and see the AIDS quilt will stop and think when they see how big it is,” said Dustin Principe, a high school student who traveled from Billings to help with the event. “Hopefully, this will help them take the right steps (to protect themselves).”

McMullen sees the quilt as an important historical reminder of AIDS’ toll, and as a call-to-arms against the disease.

“I’m angry that all those people are gone, and I’m angry because I’m still not seeing a lot of changes,” McMullen said. “It’s very important to me that all those people are remembered, not just put in a pile of stats. We made a memorial that people need.”

The quilt is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Closing ceremonies will begin Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

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