Monday, February 20, 2006

Wilmington, N.C. - University of North Carolina Wilmington is participating in The NAMES Project Foundation display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt - one of the largest ongoing community arts projects in the world. An opening ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26 in the Warwick Center. Five panels of the Quilt will be on display from 7 a.m. to midnight daily (except Sunday from 1 p.m. to midnight) beginning Sunday, Feb. 26 through Tuesday, Feb. 28 in the Warwick Center lobby.

Each of the more than 46,000 colorful panels that make up the Quilt memorializes the life of a person lost to AIDS. As the pandemic continues claiming lives around the world and here in the United States, the Quilt continues to grow and to reach more communities with its messages of remembrance, awareness and hope.

"With half of the estimated 40,000 new cases of AIDS in the United States each year infecting people 25 years of age or younger, this is a topic of particular importance to the college-age population," said Carolyn Farley, director for university union and campus activities. "I can't think of a more moving or visual way of invoking thought, stimulating discussion and motivating action than displaying panels of the Quilt."

The Quilt began in San Francisco as one person's protest to the AIDS epidemic. Propelled by the death and tragedy that confronted so many around the world, especially in the gay and lesbian community, a man named Cleve Jones searched for a way to make people understand the overwhelming loss and frustration affecting him and so many of his friends. In June 1987, Jones spray-painted Marvin Feldman, his friend's name, onto a piece of cloth approximately the size of a grave. Friends, acquaintances, and strangers joined the effort by making panels of their own. Soon thousands of people across the United States and around the world were adding names and expressing their emotions by creating these hand-made memorials for the loved ones they had lost to AIDS.

Since then, the quilt has become the largest community arts project in the world raising more than $3 million for AIDS service organizations throughout North America.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt display is sponsored by UNCW Presents, CROSSROADS, Health Promotions, Student Health Center, Randall Library, Honors Scholars Program, Student Government Association, Greek Life, Upperman African American Cultural Center, Center for Leadership Education and Service, PRIDE, OUTWilmington and Coastal AIDS Research Effort, and planned by students, faculty, and staff from throughout the University community.

For more information about the Quilt display at UNCW, visit www.uncw.edu/arts or call 910.962.7971.

Schedule of Events (all events are free and open to the public):
Thursday, Feb. 23
Film Discussion: Philadelphia
8 p.m., University Union, room 100
Hosted by Student Government Association

Sunday - Tuesday, Feb. 26-28
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
Warwick Center Lobby
Display hours
Sunday from 1 p.m. to midnight; Monday - Tuesday from 7 a.m. to midnight
Sunday, Feb. 26
Opening Ceremony
2 p.m., Warwick Center Lobby
Lecture Presentation: Tom Alford, HIV/AIDS+ peer educator
7 p.m., Warwick Center Ballroom
Hosted by UNCW Crossroads, Greek Affairs and OUT Wilmington
Monday, Feb. 27
Panel Discussion: Voices about the Numbers: A Public Forum
7 p.m., Warwick Center Ballroom
Hosted by Center for Leadership Education and Service
Tuesday, Feb. 28
Closing Ceremony
4 p.m., Warwick Center Lobby

Randall Library Web Resource
http://library.uncwil.edu/web/outreach/names/index.html
The purpose of the site is to provide further information for visitors to enrich their experience of the quilt, and to provide an online guestbook to post reflections and comments.

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