Wisconsin: National AIDS Quilt on Display at UW-Parkside

Twelve 12-foot-square panels from the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside until November 4. The full quilt includes over 48,000 panels and commemorates lives lost to AIDS. The AIDS Memorial Quilt squares were first created in 1987 to memorialize those who died of AIDS, and the quilt has been added to steadily since that time. The quilt now stretches 1.3 million square feet and weighs more than 54 tons, according to the Names Project Foundation -- the nonprofit organization that manages the quilt and, through exhibiting its panels, has raised more than $4 million for AIDS service organizations. Parkside's peer health educators, a student group promoting health and wellness on campus, were allowed to create two new quilt panels, which will travel with the quilt when it leaves. In addition, staff at Parkside used the quilt's visit as an opportunity to host educational and cultural programming centered on the impact of AIDS on society. A complete list of events is available at www.uwp.edu/departments/art/gallery.cfm. The quilt is on exhibition at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Fine Arts Gallery in the college's Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts and Humanities at 900 Wood Road in Somers. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. on Mondays, noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Gallery admission is free. Metered parking is available on weekdays until 6 p.m., with free parking on weekends.

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