• By Bsrat Mezghebe
• June 14, 2021

The AIDS Memorial Quilt: A Living Memorial

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, designed by the NAMES Project Foundation to memorialize a generation lost to AIDS and help people understand the disease’s devastating impact, is the largest community arts project in the world. In honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we explore how this living memorial serves as a powerful example of how commemoration can take different forms beyond permanent structures.

In 1985, gay rights activists in San Francisco called for supporters to write down the names of AIDS victims on placards and then plastered them on a building façade. The result resembled a patchwork quilt, and the idea for the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born. In 1987, during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall. People all over the country contributed more than 1,900 panels decorated with varied embellishments and mementos, including locks of hair and stuffed animals.

Due to the popularity of the display, the foundation took the quilt on two national tours to increase awareness, gather additional panels, and fundraise for AIDS charities. More than 20 countries also launched similar commemorative projects. On the 25th anniversary in 2012, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Museum’s American Folklife Festival, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed again on the National Mall, with 1,500 blocks of panels presented each day over a two-week period. To celebrate the anniversary, NCPC hosted a panel discussion with the organizers and released a video on the project’s alternative commemorative methods (see buttons below).

Now too large to be displayed all at once on the National Mall, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is a 54-ton tapestry with nearly 50,000 panels dedicated to more than 105,000 individuals. Each year, parts of the quilt are displayed across the country in places of learning, work, worship, and gathering (NCPC hosted a display in 2016). On the National AIDS Memorial website, visitors from all over the world can view the entire quilt, search for names, browse stories, and order personalized photos of individual panels.


AIDS Memorial Quilt Panel Discussion AIDS Memorial Quilt Presentation