The National AIDS Memorial Quilt (NAMES Project) is a community-based art project that memorializes the lives of people who have died from AIDS and AIDS-related complications.
Rhode Island has maintained a relationship with the AIDS Quilt since its inception in 1987, when Providence native Cleve Jones created one of the first panels. Jones’ panel commemorated his beloved friend Marvin Feldman, also a Providence native.
Beth and Russ Milham are dedicated volunteers who have been involved with the AIDS Quilt since the early 1990s. While working as a methadone nurse at CODEC, Beth organized a health fair about AIDS related services on Aquidneck Island. There, she met people from the local chapter of the NAMES Project and began their journey as a volunteer.
Inspired by the importance the project, Beth partnered with organizations around the state to run panel-making workshops. Both adults or children can create quilt panels to memorialize loved ones lost to AIDS, or to honor community members they didn’t know, but would like to honor.
“Making a quilt panel is a healing process,” Beth said. “People can work through all the feelings that come with grieving for a lost loved one. And there are a lot of feelings, especially associated with HIV and AIDS. They may feel, first of all, deep loss, deep sadness, deep mourning, but then they start to remember the funny things and they can laugh and then they start to remember that this person has left them and they’ve left them generally when they were quite young.”
Anyone is invited to participate in a workshop. The goal is community service and participation, not perfection. Each participant chooses a quilt panel to design. Beth provides the neutral-background panels, which can be used vertically or horizontally. These panels are 3 feet by 6 feet—the size of a grave opening—serving as a powerful reminder of the lives lost to AIDS and HIV. Beth and her team bring all the materials: a wide variety of colorful fabrics, pre-printed or downloadable images for transfer, and cutout figures representing favorite activities, passions, families, pets, favorite foods, or whatever best captures the essence of the individual.
