DAY WITH(out) ART: The AIDS Memorial Quilt

SPACE is proud to join arts and cultural organizations all across the country in solidarity with the call to action posed by World Aids Day and Day With(out) Art. On Friday December 1st through Sunday December 3rd, SPACE’s window in our 534 Congress Street gallery will be home to a section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, one of 18 panels that features a tribute to the famed artist and activist Keith Haring, who passed away from AIDS related complications in 1990.

Please join SPACE for a very special First Friday Art Walk on December 1st from 5-8pm where we welcome this panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Portland and as we host the Maine Initiatives 2017 Social Justice Fair.

About the Quilt

The AIDS Memorial Quilt began in June of 1987 by a small group of friends that wanted to document the lives they feared history would neglect. It later grew to be the world’s largest community art project and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Today it is made up of more than 48,000 panels from all over the world.

The Keith Haring block featured at SPACE on World AIDS Day 2017, was part of the full Quilt display on the National Mall in Washington, DC in 1992 and again in 1996, the last time the entirety of the Quilt could fit on the National Mall. 

About Day With(out) Art

In 1989, the organization Visual AIDS organized the first Day Without Art to observe the World Health Organization’s World AIDS Day on December 1st. In that first year, over 800 arts organizations, museums and galleries by shrouding artworks and replacing them with information about HIV and safer sex, locking their doors or dimming their lights, and producing exhibitions, programs, readings, memorials, rituals, and performances to highlight the contributions of artists affected by HIV/AIDS. 

While many participating institutions no longer cover their art, a Day With(out) Art remains a critical annual opportunity to explore the historical impact of the AIDS crisis that deeply impacted communities of artists nationwide, the legacy of the many artist-activists that led the charge for AIDS research and visibility, and the ongoing need for HIV/AIDS education today.

This pop-up exhibition of a section of the quilt is made possible by The New England NAMES Project, Frannie Peabody Center, and SPACE in honor of World AIDS Day 2017.