Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

AIDS-quilt-Dutchick-Hannah

Full Text:

Student Responses To An Epidemic Are Silent, But Visibly Strong

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

The numbers are staggering.

As of June 1997, the United States Center for Disease Control had received

reports of over 612,000 cases of AIDS, with 604,176 cases in adults and

adolescents and 7,902 cases in children (the CDC defines children as those age

13 and under). In this country alone, there have been 379,258 deaths from

AIDS. Globally, over two million people have died from the still uncurable

disease. Over 7,200 of those cases were children.

As of January 1997, there were over 8,000 cases of AIDS reported in the state

of Connecticut.

There are 16,000 new infections of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, every day.

One in 300 people is infected with AIDS.

AIDS is the leading cause of death among all Americans ages 25-44.

The numbers are frightening, but with time, people become numb to statistics.

Numbers don't say anything new... until something happens to make the numbers

personal.

In December 1997, Newtown Youth Creating AIDS Awareness for Peers, a program

of Newtown Youth Services, brought four panels of The AIDS Quilt to Newtown

High School for three days of public viewing. Owned by The NAMES Project

Foundation, The AIDS Quilt is a national memorial. Panels are created by the

friend, family or lover of a person who has died from AIDS.

The ongoing project is now ten years old. It includes over 43,000 panels

(78,656 names), representing 22 percent of all US AIDS deaths. If the panels

were laid down side by side, the quilt today would cover 16 football fields.

Panels of the quilt are shown regularly around the country in community

centers, schools, churches and office buildings.

Because half of all new HIV infections occur to those 25 years old or younger,

the NAMES Project encourages displays at schools in particular. Two of Newtown

High School's art teachers decided to find out what their students felt after

viewing the quilt. The result is a strong showing of emotion, a wall mural

that speaks volumes, silently.

The Newtown High School AIDS Quilt is being presented in the front lobby of

the high school for a few more weeks. It is a constant reminder to all of the

high school students that the disease is not something that happens "to other

people," but can come as close as Newtown, the high school, into anyone's

world.

In December, Diane Dutchick and Joyce Hannah brought their art classes to the

lecture hall in the high school where the AIDS Quilt panels were displayed.

The teachers had developed a lesson that would incorporate the students'

experiences after having viewed the overwhelming creation.

"We felt it was such a monumental event to have this quilt in our school," Mrs

Hannah said this week. "We thought there had to be a visual outcome.

"Our big problem was we didn't want to replicate the quilt. We wanted it to be

influenced by the quilt, but not to be another quilt," she continued. "We

wanted them to investigate their reactions to the quilt. This wasn't going to

be another AIDS lesson."

The NHS Quilt has 78 panels. The students were limited to the use of black,

white, grays and red when creating their panels. Many incorporate the AIDS

ribbon; a few show the globe. Each panel also had to include some text. The

depictions could be presented vertically or horizontally.

Each of the Newtown panels was designed in a 1-to-2 ratio; the panels are

twice as long as they are wide. This was intentionally planned by the

teachers, following the same ratio of The AIDS Quilt. In the NAMES quilt,

panels are three feet by six feet, the size of a human grave.

The Newtown Quilt also parallels the NAMES Quilt in that it can be transported

to another location. The panels are connected using pieces of red or white

ribbon. The red symbolizes the traditional red of AIDS ribbons.

The teachers and students are hoping the quilt can become involved with AIDS

educational programs. They would also like to see their artwork displayed in a

few venues.

Peter Dutchick, a senior at Newtown, created a panel that depicts a sickly

character sitting on a stool, his back to the viewer. The man is nude. The

words "one life" appear in the right corner.

"He's lonely, and he's feeling helpless," said Peter. Most people feel more

vulnerable when unclothed, which is why Peter decided to have the patient

undressed.

"Once you find out you're infected, it's really the end. There's really

nowhere you can go," he said. The senior has made it a personal goal to remain

involved with finding a new location for The NHS Quilt to be displayed.

Before The AIDS Quilt visited the high school last fall, many of the high

school students approached the quilt's appearance as another event happening

at the school. It was seen as another lesson, a television commercial, a

magazine ad: it was just one more sermon on something that had not touched

their lives personally.

"A lot of them said `It's a tired theme,' but when they actually saw the

quilt, when they were in its presence, it became much more of a personal

experience," Mrs Hannah said.

Peter Dutchick admitted to feeling like AIDS education is something that has

fallen out of the headlines lately. "High school is a pretty closed

environment," he said, which can result in feeling safe from some of the

things that affect people worldwide. After seeing the quilt, he said,

"everyone realized AIDS affects them somehow. It's a scary thing! This might

affect your friends, or you. You never know. You have to be so careful.

"Everyone had a different reaction. But I think we all came away with a

feeling of awareness, of respect."