Aids Quilt National Mall

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the aids memorial quilt and to mark the occasion the quilt is on display at the national mall for the first time in 16 years.

Aids quilt national mall. A subsequent tour raised in excess of 500 000 and contributed over 4 000 additional panels by the end of the 20 city tour. Today it has grown to more than 49 000. In 1996 7 a display that included a visit by president bill clinton and first lady hillary rodham clinton 8 but it returned in july 2012 to coincide with the start of the xix international aids conference. The first showing of the quilt was 1987 on the national mall in washington dc.

The enormity of loss they represent has a profound and lasting impact on those who experience. Composed of nearly 2 000 panels the quilt was larger than a football field. The first display of the project names aids memorial quilt was on the national mall on october 11 1987 during the national march on washington for lesbian and gay rights. The quilt was last displayed in full on the mall in washington d c.

More than 40 000 individuals from around the world have contributed 225 000 volunteer hours to support the national aids memorial and its mission. Twenty nine years ago the aids memorial quilt was unfolded on the mall for the first time with 1 920 panels. By then 70 000 names had been sewn into the quilt. The project was the idea of cleve jones a.

As part of the smithsonian folklife festival 8 000 of its panels have been laid out in downtown washington to remember and celebrate the lives of the people who died of aids related causes.