NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt (often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt ) is a quilt made in the United States .
The Aids Memorial Quilt commemorates the lives of people who died as a result of AIDS . The quilt weighs around 54 tons and is the largest work of art in the world that has been produced by a handicraft community .
The quilt was started by The Names Project Foundation (a group led by Cleve Jones , Mike Smith and other volunteers) in 1987 in San Francisco . At that time, some people who died of AIDS did not receive adequate funeral services due to social exclusion from surviving family members. Often friends of the deceased only had the opportunity to remember their loved ones through the Aids Memorial Quilt project . The last time the quilt was unfolded in its full size on the National Mall in Washington, DC was in 1996 .
The headquarters of the Organization The Names Project Foundation is located in Atlanta , Georgia . The organization has 21 affiliates in the United States and over 40 affiliated organizations worldwide. The quilt is kept in Atlanta when it is not temporarily exhibited elsewhere. The work of art continues to grow and currently consists of 5,748 blocks, which consist of more than 44,000 memorabilia of individual fates.
The quilt is made of different fabrics (for example lace, leather, taffeta or mink) and was made using different handicraft techniques (for example patchwork, appliqués, collages or embroidery).
Following this example, the much smaller Names Project Vienna was started in autumn 1992 .
Media and honors
- In the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt , the making of the quilt is filmed. The documentary was produced by Robert Epstein and received an Oscar for best documentary.
- Lyricist Tam Brown writes about the quilt in the song Jonathan Wesley Oliver, Jr.
- In the 1990s, John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 inspired by qulit.
- The AIDS Quilt Songbook was published in 1992 by baritone singer William Parker.
- The NAMES project inspired the song cycle Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Jesse McKinley: Fight Over Quilt Reflects Changing Times in Battle Against AIDS . In: The New York Times . January 31, 2007
- ^ Gary Laderman: Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth Century America . Oxford University Press (2003), 198
- ↑ AIDS quilt unfurled in Washington to commemorate victims . CNN
- ^ Names Project Vienna - Austria
- ↑ James R. Oestreich: Arts and Entertainment. Classical Music . In: The New York Times . June 7, 1992
- ↑ Allan Kozinn : William Parker, Baritone, Dies; Specialist in Art Songs Was 49. In: The New York Times. March 30, 1993