NEW EXHIBIT Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is in the process of creating a new traveling exhibit called "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." It will be exhibited at venues throughout the United States from January 2011 through December 2015.

This new exhibit will replace the current exhibit "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" after it retires at the end of 2010.

"Alzheimer's Illustrated" will feature 182 quilts, like the one pictured at the left, each measuring 6 inches wide by approximately 7 feet tall. The long and narrow Name Quilts will be made from 55 purple patches sewn together wrong side out. Each patch will be marked with the name of a person who has/had Alzheimer's disease.

Why have the wrong side of the fabric showing? It is lighter in color, and appears washed out or faded, much as someone with Alzheimer's. The bright side of the cloth, full of the color and pattern of life, will be turned to the inside of the quilt, never to be seen again.

The Name Quilts will create a wall of names, more than 10,000 names representing the 5.3 million people in the United States who have this horrible disease.

Hanging against this wall of purple patches and will be 52 very small quilts about Alzheimer's. They will be selected from quilts donated to the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts project. At the conclusion of the "Alzheimer's Illustrated" traveling exhibit all 234 quilts will be auctioned, with the profits funding Alzheimer's research.

You Can Help!

There are three ways you can help to move this project forward:

1. "Rent" one of the Name Quilt tops. The 55 strips have already been stitched together. Your job during the 30-day rental period is to take the quilt top to your guild, family gathering, place of worship, Alzheimer's awareness event, nursing home, assisted living center, and/or Alzheimer's unit and ask people to write the name of a person they wish to remember who has/had Alzheimer's. (Scroll down below and click the link to "Rent-A-Top.")

2. Create and donate a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt with an Alzheimer's theme so that it can be considered for the new exhibit. Please read the prospectus.

3. Tell your friends. (Use the form below if you like.)