The Cover Up community arts project has been led by Birmingham’s AIDS and HIV Memorial designer Garry Jones. It is inspired by the Names project in the United States and involved artists working with individuals, community groups, HIV groups, schools, colleges and organisations to design and make 40 quilted panels, each representing a significant happening in the 40 year history of HIV and AIDS locally and globally. Due to the popularity of the project, they actually ended with 52 quilts.

The panels formed an important part of the unveiling of The Ribbons: Birmingham’s AIDS and HIV Memorial in Hippodrome Square on World AIDS Day. This exhibition seeks to inspire future generations and ensure that the memories of those we have loved and lost to HIV and AIDS are never forgotten. It serves as a reminder that although the treatment of HIV and AIDS has come a long way, there is still much to be done to educate, to end stigma and discrimination and to ensure that HIV and AIDS is not the “forgotten pandemic.”

On display in Level 1, 2 & 3 Galleries. You can visit the exhibition from 10.30am, Mon – Sat, using our Thorp Street entrance. 

The Cover Up Quilts exhibition guide book is on sale at the Coffee Bar on Level 2 (usually opens 90 minutes prior to the show at Main House) or can be purchased by emailing hello@bahm.co.uk