CAL ARTS : AIDS Quilt Panels to Be Displayed

People from the Santa Clarita Valley who have died of AIDS will be remembered on one of two memorial quilts on display to mark World AIDS Day at CalArts.

Nine quilt panels from the AIDS Santa Clarita Foundation and 12 panels from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display Monday through Dec. 8 in the CalArts Main Gallery. The college also will hold educational and artistic presentations on the disease Tuesday, when World AIDS Day will be observed.

Made by friends and family, each quilt panel commemorates the life of someone who has died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. In the Santa Clarita Valley, AIDS has claimed nine lives and 80 people are now infected with HIV, the virus that causes the disease, said Don Walters, co-executive director of the AIDS Santa Clarita Foundation.

The last time an AIDS quilt was displayed at CalArts a few years ago, Walters said the college was vandalized with anti-gay messages. This time, however, he said he believes the quilts will elicit a better understanding of who can acquire the disease.

“I’ve made four of the quilts myself,” Walters said. “The latest was for an 11-month-old baby who died of AIDS.”

To promote AIDS education awareness, CalArts will present a lecture, “Sex: An Interactive Experience,” by AIDS educator Linda Hoag at noon Tuesday. At 6 p.m. Thursday, the school will present an evening of music, theater, poetry, art and video.