The NAMES Project is coming. What is the NAMES Project? Back in 1987, Cleve Jones noticed a bunch of plaques on the side of a building memorializing certain people. He took this idea, painted a panel of fabric that was 6’x3′ and memorialized his friend Marvin Feldman. Marvin had died of unknown and unpopular causes due to AIDS at the time.
Others joined Cleve in this endeavor and they displayed their few panels on the vast lawn of the Mall in Washington, DC. Each following year more and more panels were created by friends and family who had lost their loved ones to AIDS. Each year, the lawn on the National Mall got more and more covered.
Today, this project – a vast and versatile monument – has grown to over 48,000 panels, weighing over 54 tons. Panels are received weekly at the national headquarters. Panels are sewn into 12’x12′ square sections – think of a four-patch and each square of the four-patch is two even rectangles, so there are eight panels to a square section. Of the 8,000 sections of the NAMES Project, three will be displayed at our annual quilt show. Our featured artist, Mike McNamara will talk about the NAMES Project, and will speak directly about the panels that he has made. In the three sections on display, you will be able to see some of his actual panels.
