AIDS Quilt Display Program comes to SUNY New Paltz

NEW PALTZ – The Office of Student Activities and Union Services at the State University of New York at New Paltz will be hosting the AIDS Quilt Display program on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and Wednesday, Nov. 28 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, which is maintained and displayed by the NAMES Project Foundation, was conceived in the late 1980s by gay rights activists in San Francisco who wished to create a memorial for friends and loved ones who died of AIDS. The quilt – made up of individually submitted panels from cities across the U.S. – was displayed publicly on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the first time in 1987, and was subsequently sent on several national tours. By 1996, the AIDS Quilt covered the entire National Mall, with 48,000 submitted panels.

Today, NAMES Project divisions from all over the country have displayed the quilt in thousands of locations worldwide. More than 14 million people have visited the quilt and raised more than $3 million for AIDS service organizations throughout North America, according to the AIDS Quilt website. The quilt remains the largest community art project in the world.

“Our office is proud to present the NAMES Project Foundation’s AIDS Quilt Display,” said Brendan O’Brien, event coordinator in the Office of Student Activities and Union Services. “We wanted to bring this tour to our campus to bring awareness about the continuing struggle against HIV/AIDS. This program will show the true cost of this disease and our hope is that this program will inspire continued discussion about the effects of HIV/AIDS long after the quilt moves on to the next tour stop.”

The AIDS Quilt Display program at SUNY New Paltz is free and open to the public. For more information on the AIDS Quilt Display program at SUNY New Paltz, contact O’Brien in Student Activities and Union Services at 845-257-3025 or via email at obrienb@newpaltz.edu. To learn more about the AIDS Quilt, visit www.aidsquilt.org.