PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The world’s largest piece of community folk art, a tribute to AIDS victims, is on display in Palm Beach County.
Through December 15, three different panels of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often referred to as the AIDS Quilt, will be displayed at three different locations at the Palm Beach County Public Library.
The quilt is a giant tribute to the lives of people who have died of AIDS or AIDS-related causes.
The quilt weighs about 54 tons and was started in the 1980s during the early years of the AIDS pandemic.
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Three different panels of the AIDS Quilt will be displayed at three different locations at the Palm Beach County Public Library through December 15th.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is made up of nearly 50,000 panels containing 91,000 names of men, women and children who lost their lives to the immune system disease.
The blocks, which make up the panels, are sewn by people from communities across the country, including a Palm Beach County librarian.
Katrina Brockway, librarian at the Hagen Ranch Road branch library, said she thinks the tragedy is a little closer to home.
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Librarian Katrina Brockway explains the impact of seeing the AIDS quilt in person.
“It becomes much more personal when you see these deck panels and all these people who were loved and didn’t have the same chance to escape,” Brockway said. “So you can remember them, what they went through and what their loved ones have been through.”
Visitors can view the deck panels during regular library hours at the library’s main branch on Summit Boulevard at the Jupiter branch and at the West Boca Raton branch.
Click here for library hours and more information about upcoming AIDS events at the library.