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AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT AT MIA WELCOMES 2008 UNITED STATES CONFERENCE ON AIDS ATTENDEES, RAISES HIV/AIDS AWARENESS
(Miami-Dade County, Florida) – In honor of the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) (www.2008USCA.org), taking place September 18-21 at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, and the international commemoration of World AIDS Day, held annually on December 1, sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display from September through December 2008 at Miami International Airport (MIA). The display, Remember the Names - The AIDS Memorial Quilt, is being hosted by the Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs Division of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD), which operates MIA.
Julie Rhoad, executive director of The NAMES Project Foundation, explains, “The Quilt transforms statistics into souls, loss into hope, and indifference into understanding. That is why The NAMES Project Foundation has partnered with hundreds of organizations around the country to get every 12-by-12-foot block of The Quilt, almost 6,000 blocks, on display during USCA and World AIDS Day on December 1, 2008. We are so grateful that Miami International Airport is part of this ambitious grassroots effort to raise awareness.”
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt, which began with a single 3-by-6-foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 47,000 individual 3-by-6-foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation and every corner of the globe, and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world.
“We thank MIA for displaying the AIDS Memorial Quilt,” says Paul A. Kawata, Executive Director of the National Minority AIDS Council, sponsor of USCA. “We need to alert everyone to the continued impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country, particularly in light of recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that over 55,000 new HIV cases occur each year in this country – not 40,000 as previously thought over the past decade. The quilt honors the lives lost to AIDS, and the people working on the frontlines of the epidemic throughout the U.S., its territories and Native American reservations, many of whom will be arriving at MIA to attend the USCA.”
“The AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved into a potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS,” says Yolanda Sanchez, Ph.D., Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs Division Director for MDAD. “By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, the AIDS Memorial Quilt helps teach compassion and triumph over taboo, stigma and phobia. It inspires individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends and community.”
Remember the Names - The AIDS Memorial Quilt is on display on the second level of MIA in Concourse E just past the security checkpoint for ticketed passengers and is open to the public upon request. The exhibition is a component of the broader mia Galleries Exhibition Program, created for the purpose of humanizing the airport environment with cultural and educational experiences.
For further information, contact the Miami-Dade Aviation Department’s Division of Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs at 305-876-0749 or the Office of Communications at 305-876-7017. For more information on The NAMES Project and The AIDS Memorial Quilt, visit www.aidsquilt.org.
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