Wakefield will be the first city outside London to display the entire UK AIDS Memorial Quilt collection. Panels will also be shown from 4-7 June 2026 at Wakefield Exchange (WX) and partner venues across the district including The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Art House.
A ground-breaking display of the Quilt at Tate Modern in June 2025 was experienced by 70,000 visitors in five days. The presentation in Wakefield includes new quilt panels that have been created and added since the Tate display.
Also on view at WX will be the recently rediscovered documentary film There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, about the 1994 Hyde Park display of the Quilt, and a 'Reading of the Names' of those commemorated in the Quilt. which will take place at WX on Saturday, 6 June at 2pm.
In response to this important moment in the story of the Quilt, northern poet and novelist Andrew McMillan is writing a poem that he will complete and present in public for the first time at the ‘Reading of the Names'.
Andrew McMillan said: “It’s been one of the honours of my writing life to be asked to contribute a poem for this landmark exhibition of the AIDS Quilt in Wakefield. A poem cannot bring a person back, nor can rewrite some of the darkest moments of our history and for our community, but perhaps, in its own small way, it can learn from the Quilt project to find ways to remember, to celebrate, to mourn and ensure the voices of previous generations are not lost but rather, endure."
Siobhán Lanigan, Chair of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt partnership, added: “We are delighted that the full Quilt collection is to be shown outside London for the first time in our history.
"It is a very special moment including, as it does, new memorial panels that have been created since the display at Tate last year. We know there are people all over the UK who would like to see the Quilt and this is a first step in ensuring the Quilt visits all the UK nations in the coming years.
"The Quilt is a living memorial that reminds us that HIV is not over. People living with HIV and HIV support organisations across the north of England have worked closely with us to create this display both to remember and celebrate those lost to HIV and to fight the HIV stigma that remains a blight for many people living with HIV today.”
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