Nov. 29-Dec. 5 | The NAMES Foundation AIDS Quilt Rotunda Display - College of Charleston Libraries

For the fifth straight year, the Office of Student Life is sponsoring panels from the NAMES Foundation AIDS Quilt in conjunction with World AIDS Day. The panels are being displayed in the Addlestone Libray Rotunda from November 29 through December 3, 2017.

College faculty, staff and students are encouraged to leave messages in the signature book located next to the display on the first floor.

History of the Quilt

The concept for the AIDS Memorial Quilt was derived from the design of placards that were taped to the San Francisco Federal Building at the conclusion of a candlelight march held in November 1985 to honor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

The placards contained the names of friends and loved who had died of AIDS and the configuration resembled a patchwork quilt. In less than two years, more than 1900 panels had been created and The Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 1987. When The Quilt was displayed on the Ellipse in front of the White House the following year, it contained more than 8,200 panels.

By 1996, the number of individual panels displayed on the National Mall had increased to more than 37,000. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, The Quilt is now considered to be the largest community art project in the world.  It has been the subject of numerous articles, books and films, including the Academy Award-winning documentary, Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt.

About the NAMES Project Foundation

In 2001, the NAMES Project Foundation relocated its headquarters from San Francisco to Atlanta, GA.  The Foundation coordinates displays throughout the United States and new panels continued to be accepted and incorporated into The Quilt.

The NAMES Project Foundation works year-round to ensure public accessibility to both The AIDS Memorial Quilt and to the individual stories of the men, women and children we have lost to this epidemic.

The NAMES Project stages more than 1,000 Quilt displays each year in a variety of venues from schools and universities, corporations and community centers, places or worship and galleries – all in the hopes of making HIV/AIDS real and immediate and turning statistics into souls.

For more information in the Quilt, including a full history, database of panels and how to make a panel, visit aidsquilt.org.