Over 100,000 Lives Lost. A Legacy of Resilience.
A Living Memorial.
Ten years ago, on World AIDS Day, the New York City AIDS Memorial opened in the historic West Village, on the former campus of St. Vincent’s Hospital, home to the first and largest AIDS ward on the East Coast.
Built through an extraordinary volunteer effort and public–private partnership, the Memorial transformed this site into a welcoming green space for reflection, gathering, and community.
Today, the Memorial is a vibrant civic and cultural hub, presenting free cultural and educational public programs year-round. As an independent 501(c)(3), our work is sustained by individual donors who make this living memorial possible.
Since its dedication, the Memorial has evolved into a
dynamic, multidisciplinary cultural institution.
Centering HIV/AIDS as a lens to explore history and the communities most deeply impacted, the New York City AIDS Memorial is a beloved site for engaging public art and educational programming, and a highly-visible and vital platform for reflection, activism, and dialogue.
3M+ VISITORS
Since our dedication, the New York City AIDS Memorial has been one of two landmark stops, along with the legendary Stonewall Inn, on the NYC Pride Parade each June and a must-visit for tourists and locals interested in LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS history. Each year, we estimate that over 300,000 visitors spend time in New York City AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle or at one of our many off-site programs and events.
260+ ARTISTS
Over 260 artists, performers, writers, and other icons and legends have been showcased in our programs, events, and fundraisers, including: Arthur Russell, Avram Finkelstein, Cookie Mueller, David Wojnarowicz, Derek Fordjour, Jacolby Satterwhite, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Jenny Holzer, Jim Hodges, John Bernd, Keith Haring, Melvin Dixon, Molissa Fenley, Neil Greenberg, Nicolas Party, Pamela Sneed, Philip Glass, Sylvester, Tourmaline, and hundreds of others.
50+ PROGRAMS
Since our dedication in 2016, over 50 major programs have taken place at the New York City AIDS Memorial or with our many community partners, like the LGBT Community Center, Housing Works, School of Visual Arts, or Whitney Museum, from sculptural installations to dance performances, punk concerts to string quartets, film screenings, drag shows, cabaret, poetry readings, quilt-making workshops, theater productions, lectures, fashion shows, storytelling sessions, DJ sets, and candlelit vigils.
2B+ IMPRESSIONS
The New York City AIDS Memorial’s exhibitions and programs are regularly featured in leading national and international print and broadcast media including: NY1, NBC, NPR, CBS2, PIX11, New York Daily News, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Art Newspaper, ArtNet News, Hyperallergic, and the Guardian. Since 2016, we estimate the New York City AIDS Memorial has garnered over 2 billion media impressions.
Memory is not self-sustaining.
It must be protected.
For ten years, the New York City AIDS Memorial has kept the lives lost to AIDS—and the movement that changed this city and the world—visible in the public sphere.
As time passes, firsthand witnesses grow fewer, and the history of the epidemic becomes more vulnerable to misunderstanding or even erasure. Visibility cannot be assumed.
A gift honoring our 10th Anniversary affirms that remembrance is essential civic infrastructure and that this history remains integral to New York’s story.
“At long last, a public, permanent, and very visible that acknowledges...that something beautiful happened in terms of the LGBT responding advocacy and caregiving.”
—NBC NEWS