Panel 4185 will be on view in the JSMA lounge through May 4, 2016
EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 14, 2016) – The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, in partnership with the University of Oregon LGBTQA3, is displaying the Lane County/University of Oregon Panel #4185 of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. On view in the JSMA Lounge through May 4, 2016, the panel is part of the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 94,000 individuals lost to AIDS. Admission to view the quilt is free, and a small reception will conclude the display on Wednesday, May 4 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Following the reception, artist Zachary Drucker will present her work in Schnitzer Cinema as part of the museum’s Queer Productions series at 7 p.m. and give a tour of her exhibition “Relationship.”
Panel 4185 includes squares for partners Bobby Angele and Rodney George Lund, who died within one year of each other in 1995 and 1996 respectively. Photographs and letters written to one another, including a letter Bobby wrote to Rodney following his passing, are recreated in fabric. The lives of Neva Kaye Killian, Patrick G. Klotz, and Andrew Mixer are also celebrated in the quilt.
In a square titled “Reaching Out to One and All, Eugene OR,” Dino Y, Tony, Carl Gray, Daniel Levi Cooper, Tom Fix, Thomas Lee Cooper, Ken Reeves, Richard Wright, Dean Radewald, Albert Cline, Dewey Akins, and Carol and Bill Walker are remembered. More than 100 people contributed to the square titled “Lane County, Oregon” with fabric leaves, and the University of Oregon panel is comprised of fabric hands representing people of all ages.
“It is important to the JSMA, as a teaching museum, to present profound expression, creativity and to provide opportunity for meaningful discourse – and by hosting a panel of the AIDS Quilt, we are committed to exposing, educating, and fostering new dialog with a new generation of students,” says Kurt Neugebauer, JSMA Associate Director. “As a mature gay man who happened to survive the worst years of the AIDS epidemic, the fear, and the unknown, it is personally important to me to express how being immersed in the darkest crisis there is always opportunity for creative expression that can lift the human spirit and change the world -- through the arts.”
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The AIDS Memorial Quilt began with a single 3 x 6 foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 48,000 individual 3 x 6 foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. The 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.
In a war against a disease that has no cure, The AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved as an effective way to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, The AIDS Memorial Quilt helps teach compassion and triumphs over taboo, stigma, and phobia. It aims to inspire individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends, and community.
Julie Rhoad, Executive Director of The NAMES Project Foundation explains: “We are thrilled to have the chance to share The AIDS Memorial Quilt with your community. These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of individuals who have lost their lives to AIDS. We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing and personal responsibility. We thank the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art for hosting this event and we invite you all out to see what wonderful art we have created together as a nation.”
Sections are continuously on display across the country in schools, churches, community centers, businesses, corporations, and a variety of other institutional settings, all in the hope of making the realities of HIV and AIDS real, human and immediate. To date, more than15 million people have seen The AIDS Memorial Quilt at tens of thousands of display throughout the world.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, the Americas and Europe as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of seven museums in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
Contact:
JSMA: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
