UK AIDS Memorial Quilt

Open Wednesdays to Fridays 12pm to 5pm
Saturdays 12pm to 6pm
Sundays 12pm to 5pm

Preview Friday 11 September 7-9pm

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be exhibited in full in Scotland for the first time. At Tramway, the Quilt will be displayed alongside archival material which traces the Scottish roots of the project, as well as the documentary film There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. 

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt represents over 600 people lost to HIV and AIDS in the UK. It is part of the world's largest community art project, begun in the USA in 1985 by activist Cleve Jones to commemorate friends, family and loved ones lost to AIDS. In the late 1980s, Scottish activist Ally Van Tillo began coordinating the UK Quilt, as others were doing around the world.

Every panel in the Quilt was made by someone who loved the person it remembers. These were people with full lives, passions, friendships and families. At a time when AIDS stigma meant many died unnamed and unmourned in public, the Quilt was an act of defiance. It said these people existed and mattered – and they will not be forgotten. 

The UK Quilt consists of 335 individual panels, most measuring 3ft x 6ft, symbolic of a typical grave plot. Individual panels were stitched together to form larger blocks measuring 12ft x 12ft - each one showing both the sheer scale of loss, and the individual humanity of every life it holds.

Shown in public spaces, the Quilt became an act of remembrance, protest and celebration - a way to force people to look, and to demand action when governments would not. 

Seven UK HIV support charities formed the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership in 2014 to conserve and display the quilt. Today it stands as an important reminder of those who were lost and of the fact that HIV and AIDS continue to affect people and communities today. 

Medical advances have transformed HIV yet the social barriers remain and access to treatment and prevention still varies dramatically, both here in the UK and across the globe. The Quilt has always held space for everyone affected by HIV, whatever their treatment or status. Everyone deserves support to live as well as possible, whether that's medical, emotional or financial. Stigma, inequality and a lack of awareness mean the fight against AIDS is still not over. 

Public Programme

A public programme will run alongside the Quilt display, including a series of events curated by Glasgow based artist and researcher Steven Grainger. Full details will be announced soon.

The AIDS QUILT UK is presented by Tramway and made possible with Creative Scotland funding. The exhibition features a display of archives supported by Lothian Health Services archive, University of Edinburgh Library.

Header image courtesy of Waverley Care