AIDS Quilt Exhibition Coming to Albion
Monday, March 6, 2006

Reported by Jake Weber

[Editor's Note: Photos of the 2006 AIDS Quilt exhibition can be seen here.]

ALBION, Mich. – A tiny corner of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt fills the Albion College Kellogg Center for a special display this month. Albion College hosts the Quilt from 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, until 5 p.m. Saturday, April 1. Special opening ceremonies will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. A closing ceremony, which will honor new panels donated during this Quilt exhibition, takes place at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Quilt’s visit to Albion is sponsored by a number of campus groups and individuals, who joined together specifically to organize this event. “Bringing the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Albion College will allow students, staff, faculty and the community to see this moving piece of social activism that will hopefully help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS,” said senior Joe Taylor, one of the event organizers. “Attending this display will give people the chance to see the artistic beauty of the Quilt and I believe people will definitely walk away impacted.”

Founded in 1987, The AIDS Memorial Quilt contains the names of thousands of people worldwide who have died from AIDS. A previous nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize and the world’s largest community arts project, the Quilt serves both as a memorial to AIDS victims and an educational tool for society at large.

According to the NAMES Project Foundation website and the NAMES Project Michigan Chapter, as of November, 2005 the AIDS Memorial Quilt was well over one million square feet in size, growing an average of 126 square feet each day. The Quilt contains some 46,000 panels, with nearly 84,000 individuals from 43 countries named on it. Albion College will display 120 of the Quilt panels and expects to formally add at least one panel to the NAMES Project.

This event is free and open to the public. Viewing hours for the Quilt are: 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday, March 30; 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, March 31; 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1. For more information, contact Jennifer Schreer in the Albion College office of Campus Programs and Organizations, at 517/629-0433 or jschreer@albion.edu.

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