WNCAP Presents the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Asheville

WNACP Presents the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Asheville -- 

November 26th – December 1st

Asheville Masonic Temple

Quilt exhibit open daily during the week, 10:00 am- 7:00 pm

Please contact WNCAP Special Events Coordinator Randy Rodriguez to request a special tour our educational session: 828.252.7489 ext. 313 or randy@wncap.org

What is the AIDS Quilt?

The project began in the June 1987 when a small group gathered in San Francisco to document the lives they feared history would neglect. 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. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

In 1987, 1,920 panels were first displayed in the nation’s capital during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, to highlight the scale of the epidemic. By 2007, the Quilt included more than 46,000 panels representing over 80,000 people and it continues to grow. It is a memorial to those lost to AIDS, a tool for preventing new HIV infections, and the world’s largest ongoing community art project.

Each section of the AIDS Quilt is twelve feet square, and typically consists of eight individual three foot by six foot panels sewn together. There are currently more than 40,000 panels, and virtually every one of them memorializes the life of a person lost to AIDS.

Throughout its history, The AIDS Memorial Quilt has been used to fight prejudice, raise awareness and funding, as a means to link hands with the global community in the struggle against AIDS, and as an effective tool in HIV and AIDS education and prevention. We honor all of those impacted by HIV/ AIDS by bringing 20 blocks of the Quilt panels to Asheville for a week of commemoration and awareness.

The WNCAP Quilt Exhibit includes fourteen 12×12 foot blocks, each one made up of 8 or more individual panels, pay tribute to those who died from AIDS-related causes. Many of the panels memorialize people from the local Western North Carolina area who passed away. Others are more far-flung, such as one block made entirely of international panels. It is a solemn and moving exhibit, but also an inspiring display of the love and activism that was generated by the AIDS epidemic.

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