Throughout 1989, more than 20 countries launched similar commemorative projects based on the Quilt. With a small seed grant from the World Health Organization, Quilt organizers travelled to eight countries to mark the first World AIDS Day on Decemwith simultaneous displays broadcast from six continents. in October of 1988, when 8,288 panels were displayed on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Local panels were added in each city, tripling the Quilt’s size to more than 6,000 panels by the end of the tour. More than 9,000 volunteers across the country helped the seven-person traveling crew move and display the Quilt. The tour raised nearly $500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. The overwhelming response to the Quilt’s inaugural display led to a four-month, 20-city, national tour for the Quilt in the spring and summer of 1988. Half a million people visited the Quilt that weekend. The reading of names is now a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display. Six teams of eight volunteers ceremonially unfolded the Quilt sections at sunrise as celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends read aloud the 1,920 names of the people represented in Quilt. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Generous donors rapidly supplied sewing machines, equipment and other materials, and many volunteered tirelessly. cities most affected by AIDS - Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco - sent panels to the San Francisco workshop. Public response to the Quilt was immediate. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith, Gert McMullin and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.Ĭleve created the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman.
Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. A little over a year later, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Inspired by this sight, Jones and friends made plans for a larger memorial.