October 9, 2009 - Posted by Adam Lange
The AIDS quilt laid out on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
On October 11, 1987, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in its entirety for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The display was part of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights to memorialize AIDS victims and to represent the extent of the disease.
The quilt was the idea of Cleve Jones, a San Francisco gay rights activist who developed the concept in late 1985 after viewing a patchwork-like display of name placards of AIDS victims he had helped organize and set up on the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. Over the following months, Jones and friends teamed up to create the NAMES Project Foundation and to plan the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
The quilt is made up of three-by–six-foot panels, most of which memorialize the life of an individual victim of the AIDS pandemic. When first displayed that weekend, it was larger than a football field with almost 2,000 panels and was visited by more than half a million people. The foundation toured the country with the quilt in the spring of 1988 visiting 20 cities and raising nearly half a million dollars for AIDS service organizations.
The quilt has gone on many tours since, with panels being added at each stop and a reading of names traditionally following each display. It currently includes more than 44,000 panels, including panels from every state and dozens of countries. To date, it has been visited by over 14 million people and has helped the NAMES Project Foundation raise more than $3 million for AIDS services.
The quilt, while impressive for its size and scope as the largest community art project in the world, is perhaps most significant for other reasons. It is full of emotionally powerful and often uplifting responses to a tragic pandemic. It offers an opportunity for those who have lost loved ones to AIDS to commemorate their lives in a unique way.
As important as the quilt is for the gay community and those impacted directly by the disease, it also sends an important message to the world. It represents the scale and impact of the AIDS pandemic to others through both its large size and deeply personal patchwork pieces.
Categories: Civil Rights History, LGBT Rights
