The AIDS Memorial Quilt/ The NAMES Project

Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation, Inc., is the international, non-governmental, 501(c)(3) organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt and its associated document and media archive. The mission of The NAMES Project Foundation is to preserve, care for and use The AIDS Memorial Quilt to foster healing, advance social justice and inspire action in the age of AIDS and beyond.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt – one of the world’s most powerful symbols of the public’s response to the AIDS epidemic – will return to the nation’s capital this summer for two major programs. Deemed by an act of Congress to be a National Treasure, The Quilt now consists of more than 47,000 panels representing the lives of 94,000 individuals taken by AIDS, sewn by more than 100,000 friends and family members.

The Quilt began with a single 3’ x 6’ foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world. Its personally sewn panels come from every state in the nation, from every corner of the globe. Sections are continuously on display across the country in schools, churches, community centers, businesses, corporations and a variety of other institutional settings, all with the purpose of making the realities of HIV and AIDS real, human and immediate. To date, more than15 million people have seen The Quilt at tens of thousands of displays throughout the world.