WORLD AIDS DAY
AIDS Memorial Quilt Goes Home to San Francisco
Massive art-based memorial moving to permanent home in Golden Gate Park
BY MATT TRACY
More than three decades
after it was
created in San Francisco,
the world famous
AIDS Memorial Quilt is returning
home for good.
The quilt will be moved from
Atlanta to the National AIDS Memorial
in San Francisco’s Golden
Gate Park for long-term preservation
and educational purposes,
while related archival collections
will be under the care of the American
Folklife Center at the Library
of Congress in Washington.
The NAMES Project Foundation ,
which oversaw the development of
the quilt, and a slate of elected offi
cials, including House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and Congressmembers
John Lewis of Georgia and
Barbara Lee of California, announced
the planned move on November
20.
The idea for the quilt stemmed
from a candlelight vigil and march
in 1985 that was originally intended
to remember the assassinations
seven years earlier of out gay San
Francisco City Supervisor Harvey
Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
Cleve Jones , who was close with
Milk, asked individuals at that
event to write the names of people
who had died of AIDS and post the
names on a wall. Jones then realized
that the names looked similar
to a quilt.
Roughly two years passed before
Jones and his friend, Joseph Durant,
acted on the idea and created
individual quilts for 40 friends who
had succumbed to AIDS. They
then sewed quilts together and it
grew in size as more folks learned
about it and contributed to it. The
quilt was benefi cial in multiple
ways because it not only served as
a memorial for lost loved ones, but
also generated media attention on
the epidemic’s rapid spread.
The quilt has been displayed at
the National Mall on multiple occasions,
the fi rst time in 1987 during
the National March on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights. At that
time, it fi lled a space larger than
Panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the National Mall in Washington on July 8, 2012.
Out gay AIDS activist Cleve Jones, a creator 32 years ago of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, speaks during a
November 20 announcement that will be transferred to a permanent home in San Francisco.
a football fi eld and included 1,920
panels. Its display on the Mall —
in 1988, 1989, 1992, and 1996, as
ELVERT BARNES/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/ YOUTUBE
well — were the only times it was
displayed in its entirety. In 1996, it
fi lled the entire National Mall.
According to the NAMES Project
Foundation’s most recent information,
the quilt currently has
49,000 panels that are arrayed on
5,956 blocks measuring 12 feet
by 12 feet. It is the world’s largest
community art project.
The press release accompanying
the November 20 announcement
stated that since 1981 636,000
Americans have died from AIDS,
with more than 1.1 million currently
living with HIV.
Jones, who was fi red as executive
director of the NAMES Project
in 2004 over an apparent disagreement
regarding the way the quilt
should be displayed, was on hand
for the November 20 announcement
at the Library of Congress.
He delivered a heartfelt speech
during which he recalled the quilt’s
origins and discussed the way in
which the artwork grew over the
years.
“I could not be happier and more
grateful for this outcome,” Jones
said. “There is no scenario I can
imagine other than this never having
to have happened that would
bring me greater sense of peace to
know that this extraordinary work
of art is going to be preserved.”
Pelosi, whose Congressional district
encompasses the city of San
Francisco, delivered remarks at
the event and remembered a time
in 1987 when Jones visited her
home to discuss his idea of creating
the quilt. Despite having raised
fi ve children and knowing how to
knit, she explained, she did not
know how to sew and assumed
that many others also did not.
“I say to Cleve, ‘Cleve, a quilt?
Nobody sews,’” Pelosi recalled. ‘I
said, ‘Cleve, I just don’t know about
this project. Can’t we do something
else? Like, I don’t know what.’ And
he said, ‘No, this is it. We’re sticking
with this.’ And, of course, look
at this.”
The quilt will be on display at the
National AIDS Memorial beginning
in early 2020 and is slated to be a
key component of a forthcoming
Center for Social Conscience that
will be built by the National AIDS
Memorial in the years to come.
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