In the galleries: The AIDS Memorial Quilt at Plymouth Congregational Church
The Wichita church hosted 12 panels of the quilt from June 1-7. Photographs by Ben Miller & Olive Yager and paintings by Bob Neace hang through the end of the month.
Wichita's Plymouth Congregational church displayed 12 panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt during the first week of Pride month, June 1-7. Each panel contained at least one reference to a person or organization from Kansas, which made the viewing experience especially powerful.
Photographer Kendra Cremin documented the installation for readers who weren't able to see it in person.
Quilt panels were first numbered, then bar-coded, to keep the enormous project organized. At Plymouth, they hung on a telescoping support system. Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.
The quilt illuminates the enormous cost of the AIDS crisis, and it is also a profound statement about grief and memory. I first saw photos and read news reports about the quilt at least 30 years ago, when it was last displayed in its entirety on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But it was something else to see (part of) it in person.
According to my research, panels from the quilt were last displayed in Wichita in 2000 at the Mid-America All-Indian Museum. You can learn more about the AIDS Memorial Quilt — and explore a searchable online version — on the website for the National AIDS Memorial.
Though the quilt is no longer on view, the church is showing work by three local artists through the end of June. Vibrant acrylic paintings by Bob Neace hang in the church's hallway gallery.
Neace records flowers, Kansas pastoral scenes, and even abstract work, all of which are rendered in deliberate brushstrokes.
Photographs by Olive Yager and Ben Miller hang in the Lobby Gallery, just inside the entrance from the parking lot.
The works by Bob Neace, Ben Miller, and Olive Yager are for sale.
The galleries at Plymouth Congregational are open to the public from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m-noon Sundays. Admission is free, and the building is accessible to people with physical disabilities.
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