Out Spotlight XXIX

Arthur Ashe. Brad Davis. Robert Reed. Alison Gertz. Freddy Mercury. Keith Haring. Halston. Ryan White. Easy E. Wayland Flowers. Pedro Zamora. Liberace. Rudolf Nureyev. Slyvester. Rock Hudson. Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. An Academy Award in for a documentary about it in 1989. and the largest community art project in the world. What one thing has all this of in common?

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt

It is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic. More than 46,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels -- most commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS -- have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family members brought together as tribute, memorial and celebration of the lives lost to AIDS.

Its conception came from another memorial. The Annual candle march honoring San Fransicsco Supervisor Harvey Milk and SF Mayor George Moscone killed in 1978, by their friend and gay rights activist Cleve Jones. During the 1985 vigil he found out that over 1000 SF residents had been lost to AIDS at that time. He asked fellow marchers to put their names on placards of their friends lost and when gathering all together it was reminiscent of a patchwork quilt. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was born. A little over a year later the first panel was created in memory of his friend Martin Friedman. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation. Public response to the Quilt was immediate. People in the U.S. cities most affected by AIDS -- Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- sent panels to the San Francisco workshop.

On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Half a million people visited the Quilt that weekend.

The overwhelming response led to a four-month, 20-city, national tour for the Quilt in the spring of 1988. The tour raised nearly $500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. Local panels were added in each city, tripling the Quilt's size to more than 6,000 panels by the end of the tour.

The Quilt returned to Washington, D.C. in October of 1988, with 8,288 panels displayed on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends started the tradition of reading aloud the names of the people represented by the panels. The reading of names is now a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display. In 1989 a second tour of North America brought the Quilt to 19 additional cities in the United States and Canada. That tour and other 1989 displays raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for AIDS service organizations.

By 1992, the AIDS Memorial Quilt included panels from every state and 28 countries. In October 1992, the entire Quilt returned to Washington, D.C.. and in January 1993 The NAMES Project was invited to march in President Clinton's inaugural parade.

The last display of the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt was in October of 1996 when The Quilt covered the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C. The 1,000 newest blocks - those blocks received at or since the October 1996 display - were displayed the weekend of June 26, 2004 on The Ellipse in Washington D.C. in observance of National HIV Testing Day.

Today there are NAMES Project chapters across the United States and independent Quilt affiliates around the world. Since 1987, over 14 million people have visited the Quilt at thousands of displays worldwide. Through such displays, the NAMES Project Foundation has raised over $3 million for AIDS service organizations throughout North America.

The Washington, D.C. displays of October 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1996 are the only ones to have featured the Quilt in its entirety,

• Funds Raised by The Quilt for Direct Services for People with AIDS: over $4,000,000 (U.S.)

• Number of Visitors to The Quilt: 15,200,000

• Number of 12'x12' Sections of The Quilt: 5,748

• Number of Panels in The Quilt: over 46,000

• Number of Names on The Quilt: More than 91,000*

• Size : 1,293,300 square feet (the equivalent of 275 NCAA basketball courts with walkway, 185 courts without walkway)
  
  
• Miles of Fabric: 52.25 miles long (if all 3'x6' panels were laid end to end)

• Total Weight: More than 54 tons

• NAMES Project Chapters: 18

• International Affiliates: 43

The information for this Out Spotlight is provided by The AIDS Memorial Quilt