Forum considers what should fill the WTC Cultural Center

In light of the removal of the International Freedom Center (IFC) from the site plan announced in September, a panel discussion attended by more than one hundred people on December 12 re-addressed the question of how the arts can fit into remembering and memorializing the lives lost on 9/11.

"What is culture? Is it memory, creativity? Is it different on this site than elsewhere?" asked Paul Goldberger, dean of Parsons School for Design and moderator for the forum, "Zero Culture: What's Happening to the Arts at Ground Zero?" presented by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC).

Panelists, including Tom Bernstein, co-founder of the IFC; Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Hans Haacke, an artist; Mike Wallace, director of the Gotham Center; and Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, agreed that culture should have a place on the 16 acres because it can "commemorate and animate" Lower Manhattan. Wallace proposed the idea of an institution known as the International House of Culture (IHOC), which would invite artists to create cultural products, similar to the LMCC's artist-in-residence program.

When the discussion opened to invite audience members' comments, a mother who lost her 26-year-old son in the twin tower attack suggested that the cultural offerings made available on the site should be related to 9/11. In defense of the victims' family members who protested that the proposed IFC programming could include anti-American exhibitions, she said, "Do not think we hate art, but it can be tied to what happened there."

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