Reynolds Performance Hall is hosting a gallery containing quilts memorializing AIDS victims from Oct. 6 to Oct. 31.
The quilts are displayed on the wall in the lobby of Reynolds, stretching all of the way up near the hall’s ceiling.
Each quilt panel represents a different AIDS victim and is designed with features unique to each person.
“As we get a generation or so out, we’re starting to see a lot of people forget about [the AIDS crisis],” Dr. Paige Rose, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, said. “Last time I looked, there were 44 million deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS.”
Rose said the project first began around 15 years ago when Dr. Gayle Seymour brought in a few panels of the AIDS memorial and the project has continued to be a part of UCA since then.
“From an artistic standpoint, it’s the largest community arts project in the world,” Rose said. “I know at one point they were able to lay everything out in the National Mall [in D.C.], but it’s so big now they can’t even do that.”
There are two quilt sections displayed in Reynolds Performance Hall.
“Each quilt block has eight panels representing people who have passed away, and the two we have this year contain the names and memories of several Arkansans,” Rose said.
Rose said the quilts are treated like collections, with different panels being sent out to be displayed across the country.
Rose received information about the quilts currently displayed in Reynolds last year.
“I started going down [the list] and I thought these were particularly pretty ones and they also had a lot of details on them,” Rose said.
She also said that the CAHSS were able to bring in speakers for some of those memorialized on the quilts.
The CAHSS has brought in artist in residence Korto Momolu to produce a quilt honoring Joe Terry, a singer and dance instructor from Little Rock.
Terry was a member of the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network, a Presbyterian-affiliated group who works to educate young people about AIDS and AIDS prevention.
“They’re attributed to saving a lot of lives,” Rose said. “Just by spreading the real facts and dispelling myths about it.”
Rose said Terry’s quilt being produced and displayed at UCA is a “great honor” for the CAHSS.
“I think it’s important to keep [the memory of the AIDS crisis] alive for history,” Rose said. “And to know that all types of people from all walks of life can still get this disease. It’s not over.”
“Maybe there are things we can learn from each crisis,” Rose said.
The quilt itself represents over 110,000 people who have died from AIDS.
“We hope everyone can come to the ceremony or see this living history on view at Reynolds Performance Hall in October,” Rose said.
In addition to the additional quilt, the CAHSS will have speakers, poets and presentations to further curate the quilts and their place in history.
