In 1985 San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones conceived the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a patchwork of panels, each commemorating the lives of someone who had been lost to the pandemic. Today the Quilt has become an international movement and consists of over 48,000 panels representing named individuals from across the globe, each panel crafted in their memory by loved ones in order that their lives and names should never be forgotten.
In July, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt partnership, in conjunction with Fast Track Cities London, will be curating the largest display of the UK AIDS Quilts since the 1990s.
Honouring those UK lives lost to AIDS, and a reminder that HIV is still with us today, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display on the first two weekends of July at Acorn House, Gray’s Inn Rd, Kings Cross St Pancras, London.