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At the dawn of the 1987 March on Washington, the Names Project Quilt, documenting those who had died from AIDS was displayed on the National Mall for the first time. It covered an area larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. By 1988 the number of panels had increased to 8,288. In 1996, the display of the AIDS Quilt covered the National Mall from the West Front of the Capital to 14th Street, making it one of the largest public arts projects ever conceived and realized.

The quilt memorialized the Gay community’s mounting losses to AIDS, and paradoxically, it also celebrated hope. Public displays of the quilt in the nation’s capitol emphatically rejected homophobia and the social stigma attached to AIDS.

Each panel recorded an individual loss; it was then sewn to its neighbors, creating a community of strength, hope and pride.

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