A new memorial quilt to celebrate the life of the first named person to die of an AIDS-related illness in the UK is going on public display for the first time at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery from this weekend (Saturday 9 December, 2023).
When Terrence Higgins – known as Terry – died on 4 July 1982, his death sparked the creation of a charity in his name that would alter the course of the HIV epidemic and save countless lives.
But until now there wasn’t a quilt to remember Terry and celebrate his life, legacy and character. The quilt is being displayed in Sheffield as part of a new Ruskin Collection: Hand, Head and Heart exhibition, which celebrates the positive power of making by hand. The exhibition explores the contemporary legacy of Victorian writer and artist, John Ruskin, who believed in the potential for handmaking and handcraft to make people’s lives better.
The making of quilts has a rich history in the context of the HIV epidemic starting in the 1980s to celebrate the lives of those lost to AIDS and ensure they were never forgotten. Quilt-making was used to memorialise and draw attention to the HIV response, but also to bring together those grieving through communal making.
There are quilts for famous faces including filmmaker Derek Jarman, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and activist Mark Ashton whose story is told in hit film Pride.
The creation of a quilt to celebrate Terry was overseen by Rupert Whitaker OBE (who was Terry’s partner) and Martyn Butler, co-founders of Terrence Higgins Trust, as well as Terry’s close friends Linda Payan and Maxine Saunders. They then worked closely with talented quilters from across the country and The Quilters’ Guild.
Four decades on from his death, visitors to Millennium Gallery will get to know Terry better than ever before through each of the eight panels celebrating different aspects of him, including as a Welshman, gay man and his time in the Royal Navy. While two of the panels explore his working life as a Hansard report in Parliament and his evenings spent as a DJ and barman in gay nightclub Heaven.
The final panel was made by service users, volunteers and staff from Terrence Higgins Trust. The panel celebrate the huge progress made in the fight against HIV since Terry’s death. It features in blue stitching the stigma-busting messaging ‘can’t pass it on’, meaning that today someone living with HIV and on effective treatment cannot pass HIV on to partners.
The new Ruskin Collection exhibition, which explores the power of handmaking and handcraft to make positive change, also features one of the pieces from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt made in the 1990s. One of the eight people remembered is Rodney Dunne from Yorkshire who died in 1992. It was made by his friends Brian Walker and Alison Townley from Wetherby who made the panel and requested it is shown in Yorkshire whenever possible.
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is a huge piece of community art made up of 48 separate panels, which each comprise of eight smaller tributes to those lost during the AIDS crisis. They were often produced by the loved ones of those represented in each panel and to ensure they are never forgotten.
The Terry Higgins Memorial Quilt and panel 21 from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt go on display at the Millennium Gallery alongside a range of artworks made in education settings, produced as part of therapy pathways or created to raise awareness, as well as over 60 highlights from the Guild of St George’s Ruskin Collection. Visitors will see contributions from organisations including Fine Cell Work, Combat Stress, Freeman College and the Yorkshire Speak Their Name Suicide Memorial Quilt, as well as an array of beautifully crafted drawings, watercolours, manuscripts, plaster reliefs, textiles, decorative metalwork and more.
Our Chief Executive Richard Angell said: ‘We’re very proud of Terry’s memorial quilt and thrilled so many people will get to know him better as it opens to the public for the first time in Sheffield. The quilt is a testimony to the man and the distance we have travelled – when Terry died, HIV didn't even have a name. Today we have world-class treatment that saves lives and means people cannot pass on the virus.
‘This beautiful artwork has surpassed all of our expectations and is an awe-inspiring tribute to Terry as a friend, lover, Welshman, gay man and activist, as well as to his lifesaving legacy through the work of our charity. Everyone who worked on the quilt has experienced for themselves the positive power of hand making and the space it allowed to find out more about Terry, the HIV epidemic and the incredible progress that’s been made in the last four decades.’
Ashley Gallant, Curator, Ruskin Collections says: ‘For John Ruskin, producing handcrafted objects provided honest work that was close to nature, good for moral character and improved the lives of craftspeople. Today, the act of handmaking continues to make a positive difference to people’s lives in so many ways. We’re really thrilled that Hand, Head and Heart offers us the chance to explore the power of contemporary making to do good and celebrate the remarkable work of all our exhibition contributors.’
Becky, a woman living with HIV from Sheffield, said: ‘The biggest issue facing most people living with HIV in the UK is the stigma. I take one pill a day and HIV doesn’t stop me doing anything I want to. Medication keeps me healthy and means I cannot pass HIV onto anyone else. I know that for sure because I have two children and a great partner, who are all HIV negative. I hope that people from across South Yorkshire and further afield come and learn about Terry Higgins, his life and, most importantly, the positive reality of HIV today.’
Dr Claire Dewsnap, Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a Trustee of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: ‘I’m thrilled Sheffield is the first place in the world to see the Terry Higgins Memorial Quilt right in our city centre. As a doctor, I specialise in sexual health and see for myself how many taboos there still are around HIV and sexual health. I hope the quilt engages people far and wide in the past, present and future of HIV, including the knowledge that you can live a long, healthy and happy life with HIV. What a way to keep Terry Higgins’ legacy going.’
Ruskin Collection: Hand, Head and Heart opens on Saturday 9 December at 10am and continues until spring 2024 at Millennium Gallery in Sheffield.
