UK AIDS Memorial Quilts

15–16 November

Five quilts from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership will be coming to the museum over this special weekend in November. Part of the largest community arts project in history, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt helps us to remember and celebrate all lives lost to HIV from the beginning of the pandemic in the 1980s to the present day.

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership is a coalition of 7 UK HIV support charities working together to find a permanent home for the UK Quilt, to conserve it and to ensure it is put on public display as often as possible.

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is an irreplaceable piece of social history. It’s made up of 42 large blocks, each made up of eight panels commemorating someone in the UK who died of an AIDS-related illness. Panels were lovingly made by their friends, lovers and family members. Memorial quilt making has continued over the years and new individual and large pieces have been added to the collection to form a living memorial with a focus on celebrating the lives, passions and interests of people lost to HIV.

The idea to create a quilt in memory of friends and loved ones lost to the AIDS epidemic emerged in San Francisco in the mid 1980s, the idea of Cleve Jones a human rights activist, author and lecturer. The American quilts were first displayed on the National Mall in Washington DC on October 11, 1987 and it was not long before the idea was adopted in other countries.

We have selected 5 quilts from the UK collection, that include memorials to people with a connection to America. Some are well-known American figures, others less so. Together with their panels are moving tributes to some of the 42.3 million people worldwide who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Images of the full quilt and the stories of those remembered can be seen at AIDSQuiltUK

This exhibition is free to attend.