Supported by the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership, EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival) is the home to the quilt panel commemorating the life of Derek Allan Fraser until the end of March. The panel will be shown in the window of our French Institute of Scotland office, visible from George IV Bridge and the Royal Mile, as hundreds pass each day.
About the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is an irreplaceable piece of social history, tells the stories of many of those lost in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s through fabric. Each panel of the quilt commemorates someone who died of HIV/AIDS, lovingly made by their friends, lovers, or family.
In total, the quilt panels represent approximately 384 people from all around the UK. The quilt reminds us how far the fight against HIV has come. Thanks to medical advances and tireless activism, people living with HIV can live long and healthy lives — but there is still so much to be done.
Find out more about present day HIV activism at waverleycare.org
About Derek Allan Fraser
Derek (22 Oct 1961—7 Dec 1994) worked as the Building Services Manager at London Lighthouse, a beautifully designed, purpose-built centre for people affected by HIV and AIDS.
It provided a pioneering model of holistic care that embraced the philosophy that death and dying are central to life and living. People found care, support services, love and community within its walls.
Derek was a proud Scottish gay man; born in Fife, he was the youngest of seven children. He was small in height, wiry, energetic, fierce, plain-speaking and hard-working, but not without a dry sense of humour and moments of camp. One colleague said of Derek that he “lived on his own terms, spoke his mind and had no time for pretence, or beating about the bush”.
