UK Aids Memorial Quilt to go on display in Scotland for first time

A quilt made to commemorate hundreds of people who died of HIV and Aids is set to go on display in Scotland for the first time.

The UK Aids Memorial Quilt was started in Edinburgh in the late 1980s by Scottish campaigner Ally Van Tillo – formerly Alastair Hume – as a “resource for loss, bereavement and education”.

The quilt consists of 42 quilts and 23 individual panels, representing more than 384 individuals who died of HIV and Aids in the UK.

It is one of a number of quilts produced around the world as part of a project started in the US in 1985 by activist Cleve Jones, which Mr Van Tillo saw during a visit to San Francisco in the late 1980s.

The activist began co-ordinating the creation and display of a UK version after returning home to Edinburgh.

The quilt will go on display at Tramway in Glasgow in September 2026, alongside archival material tracing the Scottish roots of the project and the documentary film There is a Light that Never Goes Out.

For Mr Van Tillo, the exhibition means the quilt is “coming home to Scotland”.

“From 1989 and throughout the 90s, the quilt found a home in Leith. At the time, it was a resource for loss, bereavement and education,” he said.

“It helped people make sense of their loss, humanising the death of individuals that our government and media were painting as perverts and social pariahs.

“But its significance today is not just historical. Language used to ostracise gay people has not gone away, and the queer community is once again under threat.

“Trans people are misunderstood and individuals’ identities are routinely attacked.

“We are reminded of the scaremongering and shock tactics which lead to the deaths of countless queer people, not just from Aids but from suicide and violent crime which were equally responsible for decimating families.”

The campaigner added: “Queer history for the most part is lost, because so many individuals were living in shame and shadows.

“The Aids Memorial Quilt is alive: let’s ensure no more of our history is allowed to disappear.”

Nearly 70,000 visitors saw the quilt when it went on display at the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London for five days in June 2025.

As with the Tate Modern exhibition, the exhibition at Tramway will include scheduled readings of the names of those commemorated in the quilt.

A display of one piece of the quilt is also on display at the French Institute of Scotland in Edinburgh until March 2026.

Christopher Ward is national operations manager at Waverley Care, a Scottish charity dedicated to HIV and hepatitis C.

He said: “The UK Aids Memorial Quilt has deep roots in Scotland thanks to the vision of Ally Van Tillo, who helped create the UK quilt during the early years of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s.

“The quilt was an act of remembrance, activism, and protest to say that these lives mattered.

“The Aids Quilt UK Partnership is delighted to see the quilt return to Scotland and be displayed in Glasgow.

“It offers an important moment to honour those we have lost and to reflect on the work we still have to do to end HIV-related stigma and inequality.”

The UK Aids Memorial Quilt will be on display at Tramway in Glasgow from September 12-27 2026, with admission free.