News Team Boulder

Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: News

Unique patterns and prints help memorialize AIDS victims in the form of a patchwork quilt. Stretching almost two miles in length, the quilt features the names of people worldwide who have died of AIDS. For the next three days from 10am to 2pm, portions of this Nobel Peace Prize-nominated AIDS Quilt will be on display in the Norlin Quad at CU-Boulder. Although the more than 44,000-paneled quilt will not be in its entirety, students can experience the largest community art project in the world.

Long time San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones started the quilt in 1985 after the assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. While planning a candlelight march in their memory, he discovered that more than 1,000 San Franciscans had died from AIDS as well. He invited march participants to write the names of those who had passed away on placards. When all the placards were placed on the San Francisco Federal Building, the newly covered wall resembled a patchwork quilt. After the march, Jones decided to begin making a real quilt.

During the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in October, 1987, the Quilt made its first appearance on the National Mall in D.C. More than half a million people came to see the 1,920 panels that spanned across a space larger than a football field.

Since 1987, the Quilt has raised more than $4 million for AIDS service organizations in North America. Worldwide, more than 18 million people have been able to visit the Quilt at thousands of displays.

The Quilt has made people rethink the tradition of quilt-making in response to contemporary conditions. This work of art serves as a memorial and a unique way to bring AIDS awareness to all. The more than 91,000 names featured along the quilt create an uplifting response to the unfortunate loss of human life.


Names You May Recognize:

* Rock Hudson, actor (left column, third from top)


















* Freddie "Mercury" Bulsara, lead singer of rock group Queen (top left corner)


















* Liberace, performer (left column, second from top)


















Interesting Quilt Facts:

* Total Weight: More than 54 tons

* Size: 1,293,300 square feet

* Viewing time: To see the entire Quilt spending only one minute per panel - over 33 days

* The names on The Quilt represent approximately 17.5 percent of all U.S. AIDS deaths.

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