AIDS Memorial Quilt

The concept of the AIDS memorial quilt was created by gay rights activist Cleve Jones in November 1985. While helping plan the annual candlelight march to honor assassinated gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Mascone, Jones decided to recognize San Francisco residents lost to AIDS. He asked each marcher to write on placards names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. After the march, the placards were taped to the walls of the [Page 61]San Francisco federal building. This wall of names resembled a patchwork quilt.

Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the quilt is the largest community art project worldwide, representing the ultimate example of art as a tool for activism and social change. As of May 2006, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is composed of more than 5,748 blocks (which are the 12-foot square building blocks seen at displays).

Source: Photo by dbking, Washington, DC.

Motivated by this display, Jones worked with others to plan a larger memorial. The idea was a quilt: a fabric patchwork bearing the names of people lost to AIDS; men, women, and children, remembered by their families and loved ones with a personalized cloth panel. Jones created the first AIDS Memorial Quilt panel in memory of his friend Marvin Feldmen. Jones collaborated with his friend Mike Smith and others in June 1987 to formally organize the Names Project Foundation, which is currently headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

The quilt symbol was chosen in a deliberate effort to evoke and recapture the traditional American values that were affected by the AIDS epidemic but that had yet to be applied to it. Public response was immediate as people from other cities most affected by AIDS, such as New York and Los Angeles, sent panels to San Francisco. The inaugural quilt display took place on October 11, 1987, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. At that time, the quilt consisted of 1,920 panels and was larger than a football field. After the initial display of the quilt, requests to have the quilt displayed in other locations around the country flooded the organization's office. This was the beginning of the traveling quilt display. The quilt grew as it traveled, for in every city it visited, scores of new panels were added to the collection.

The entire quilt was last displayed in October 1996, when it covered the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C. Each quilt block measures 12 square feet and typically consists of eight separate panels. More than 40,000 colorful panels comprise 5,712 blocks. Currently, 20-plus Names Project chapters exist in the United States with 40 independent AIDS Memorial Quilt affiliates worldwide. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is the largest community art project worldwide, representing the ultimate example of art as a tool for activism and social change.

The Names Project is not a political organization in that the organization takes no position on the various legislative and policy issues surrounding the AIDS epidemic. From its inception, however, the Names Project has sought to have an impact on the political process by helping keep the memory of those lost to the epidemic visible.

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