Skip to main content
Connecticut College
  • About Connecticut College
  • Academics
  • Admission & Financial Aid
  • Alumni & Life After Conn
  • Athletics
  • Campus & Community
  • Career Preparation
  • Human Resources
  • Student Experience
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Directory
  • Employment
  • Libraries & Technology
  • CC Magazine
  • Site Map
Make a gift CamelWeb Today at Conn

Specialized Resources

  • Accessibility Services
  • Admission Deadlines
  • Admitted Students
  • Admitted Student Statistics
  • Arboretum
  • Arts and Culture
  • Bookshop
  • Campus Map
  • Clubs and Activities
  • Counseling Services
  • Directions to Campus
  • Essays That Worked
  • Financial Aid Services
  • Health Services
  • International Students
  • Interviewing
  • Libraries
  • Orientation
  • Request Information
  • Residential Life
  • Majors and Minors
  • Student Blog
  • Sustainability
  • Technology Services
  • Title IX: Sexual Respect
  • Transfer Students
  • Tuition and Fees
  • Transportation
  • Visit Campus
  • Academic Advising
  • Academic Calendar
  • Academic Resource Center
  • Arboretum
  • Arts and Culture
  • Camel Card Office
  • Campus Safety
  • Campus Map
  • Career Services
  • Class Schedules
  • Clubs and Student Engagement
  • Connections
  • Counseling Services
  • Course Catalog
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Environmental Health & Safety
  • Global Focus
  • Health Services
  • Libraries
  • Residential Life
  • Sustainability
  • Technology Services
  • Title IX: Sexual Respect
  • Transportation
  • Academic Advising
  • Academic Calendar
  • Arboretum
  • Arts and Culture
  • Banner Self-Service
  • Camel Card Office
  • Campus Map
  • Campus Safety
  • Center for Teaching & Learning
  • Course Catalog
  • Course Information and Schedules
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Employee Benefits
  • Environmental Health & Safety
  • Facilities Management
  • Human Resources
  • Instructional Technology
  • Libraries
  • Moodle
  • Sustainability
  • Technology Services
  • Title IX: Sexual Respect
  • Wellness Program
  • Academic Calendar
  • Academic Resource Center
  • Alcohol and Drug Education
  • Arboretum
  • Arts & Culture
  • Athletics Calendar
  • Bookshop
  • Camel Card Office
  • Campus Map
  • Campus Safety
  • Career Services
  • CARE Team
  • Commencement
  • Counseling Services
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Fall Weekend
  • Applying for Financial Aid
  • First-Year Student FAQ
  • Global Focus
  • Health Services
  • Libraries
  • Orientation
  • Parent enewsletter
  • Parents Council
  • Residential Life
  • Resources for Parents and Families
  • Student Employment
  • Tuition and Fees
  • Visiting New London

 

  • Area Attractions & Events
  • Area Hotels
  • Arboretum
  • Arts and Culture
  • Bookshop
  • Campus Map
  • Campus Safety
  • The Children's Program
  • Community Learning/Volunteering
  • Directions
  • Events and Catering
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Reserving Harkness Chapel
  • Local Restaurants and Dining
  • OnStage Performances
  • Transportation
  • Alumni Directory
  • Alumni Events
  • Alumni Association
  • Arts and Culture
  • Bookshop
  • Campus Map
  • Fall Weekend
  • Global Focus
  • Libraries
  • Library Databases
  • Notable Alumni
  • Email Help
  • Replacement Diploma
  • Reunion
  • Sponsor an Internship
  • Support the College
  • Title IX: Sexual Respect
  • Transcripts
  • Update Your Info
  • Volunteer
  • Post a job or internship
  • Explore employment programs
  • Learn about funded internships

World AIDS Day: AIDS Memorial Quilt on display

A student looks closely at the AIDS Memorial Quilt panels on display in Conn
  • Home 
  • Home 
  • News 
  • News Archive 
  • 2022 
  • AIDS Memorial Quilt

World AIDS Day: AIDS Memorial Quilt on display

Eric Lotring loved Disney, collected pins and was a proud member of the Mickey Mouse Club. He was 31. Christopher Gillis was a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, an artist, a choreographer, a brother, a son, a lover, a friend. He was 42. Larry Michael Nelson, from New London, was 39. Linda Marie Moran was just 25. George Kish, who worked at IBM and raised three loving sons, had already lost more than 60 friends to AIDS by the time of his own death in 1992. He was 58.

In Connecticut College’s black box Tansill Theater, dozens of students silently stand before the quilted panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that bear their names, images, mementos and stories, each stitched—and many signed—by those who loved them.

In their “Theater of the AIDS Epidemic” course with Associate Professor of Theater Virginia Anderson, the students had learned about the quilt, the premier symbol of the AIDS pandemic, and some had even helped unpack the more than 70 panels on display at Conn through Dec. 4. But being in the presence of the expansive panels, spotlit and hanging floor-to-ceiling on three sides of the room, is a completely different experience.

“When I saw photos of the quilt before it came to Conn, I had no emotional attachment to it,” said Julio Ortiz ’25. “Seeing it in person was very emotional. I spent a half hour alone with the quilt, in complete silence, just taking in every word, every image, every detail, every life.”

This is the third time Anderson, who joined Conn’s faculty in 2013, has brought sections of the quilt to Conn. Originally conceived in 1985 by human rights activist, author and lecturer Cleve Jones, the full quilt now weighs more than 54 tons and is composed of more than 48,000 panels dedicated to more than 94,000 individuals. It is also the largest ongoing piece of community folk art in the world.

“It’s been a goal of mine to host the quilt every four years so every Connecticut College student has an opportunity to experience and learn from it,” Anderson said. “There is so much we can learn about compassion from the quilt. The love and care that went into making each panel really makes you think not only about the lives lost, but also the people who were left behind.”  

Anderson said she’s been heartened by the response from the community. Specific panels can be requested; this year she received more requests than ever before. The exhibition also coincides with World AIDS Day, observed on Dec. 1, and hundreds of visitors had already been through in just the first few days.

But it’s been the response from the students—all of whom were born after the height of the epidemic—that has been the most encouraging.

“They are so engaged. And many of them are angry—angry about what happened, but also about the fact that they weren’t taught about what happened,” she said. 

Elora Maxwell ’26 is one of those students. “So few of us knew a lot about the epidemic, and some, like me, were taught nothing about it at all,” she said. “We need to remember those who were lost and those who fought for their lives, because it is important for us to see what happens when we let hate and bigotry triumph over compassion and love.”

Maxwell’s classmate Skylar Gould ’26 said the quilt shows “the legacy of AIDS and the lives it took in a form that cannot be denied or minimized.” It is not only a memorial, she said, “but a physical and massive counterargument to the ways AIDS has been ignored in the news and the history books.”

Maddy Fisher ’26 added that seeing the quilt and learning about the AIDS epidemic is motivating for her and her classmates.

“The younger generations are the ones who need to make the change. We are capable of making progress,” she said. “This kind of education, exposure and awareness is just the beginning. It’s simply the launching point.”

The AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibition is free and open to the public 9 a.m.-7 p.m. in Tansill Theater, Hillyer Hall, through Sunday, Dec. 4.




December 1, 2022

Related News & Media

Recent News

Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity in Eastern Connecticut launches with inaugural gathering at Conn

Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity in Eastern Connecticut launches with inaugural gathering at Conn

Campus News

Professor Jefferson Singer edits special issue of Journal of Personality exploring the psychobiographies of change agents

Professor Jefferson Singer edits special issue of Journal of Personality exploring the psychobiographies of change agents

Faculty News

Connecticut College
270 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320
1 (860) 447-1911
admission@conncoll.edu
Web Privacy Policy
Web Accessibility Notice

Website Navigation

  • About Connecticut College
  • Academics
  • Admission & Financial Aid
  • Alumni & Life After Conn
  • Athletics
  • Campus & Community
  • Career Preparation
  • Human Resources
  • Student Experience
Make a gift CamelWeb Today at Conn
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Directory
  • Employment
  • Libraries & Technology
  • CC Magazine
  • Site Map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn