San Francisco, CA
United States
130 Doolittle Drive, San Leandro AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1 July 1987
105000 names
Founded in 1987, The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world.
Each "block" (or section) of The AIDS Memorial Quilt measures approximately 3.60 m (12 feet) square, and a typical block consists of eight individual 90 by 180 cm (3 by 6 foot) panels sewn together. Virtually every one of the more than 44,000 colorful panels that make up the Quilt memorializes the life of a person lost to AIDS.
The Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones. After having created the first panel in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith and several others in June of 1987 to formally organize the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Public response to the Quilt was immediate and people 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. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels.
After tours across the United States and Canada, the Quilt grew and returned to Washington, D.C. in October 1988, 1989, and 1992. Celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends read aloud the names of the people represented by the Quilt panels. The reading of names is now a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display.
The last display of the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt was in October of 1996 covering the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C. 1,000 later blocks were displayed the weekend of June 26, 2004.
Today there are NAMES Project chapters across the United States and independent Quilt affiliates around the world.

National AIDS Memorial