Press Release - The International Freedom Center

August 12, 2005

Weak Spines at WTC Site
Governor, LMDC waffle; they ought to defend artistic freedom

A coalition of 9/11 family members and others determined to "take back the memorial" from state master planners have just moved closer to their goal. This isn't good news.

Officials of the Drawing Center, which was envisioned as a part of the cultural complex that will go up near the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, announced yesterday that they will search for another location downtown.

Their reason is simple. The center has been under intense fire lately from family members, who think it might display art critical of the Iraq war or other controversial stuff. As soon as this dust-up arose, the state-run Lower Manhattan Development Corp. should have stepped in with a defense of the center's artistic freedom. Instead, it decided to duck.

The LMDC has made it clear it's ready to let the Drawing Center walk. The center says its first choice is to remain in the cultural complex at the site where the World Trade Center was destroyed. But with support from the state fading fast, it would rather leave than to forfeit its artistic freedom.

Meanwhile, another cultural institution planned for the site, the International Freedom Center, now finds itself in a similar bind. LMDC Chairman John Whitehead essentially said yesterday that the freedom center must either find a way to placate its critics - or hit the road. It has until Sept. 23 to iron out its problems with 9/11 family members and to spell out its specific plans.

Can any cultural institution weather such restrictions?

This is highly doubtful. Many of the critics object to any exhibits near the memorial that don't relate directly to the events of 9/11. Yet the LMDC's master plan calls for cultural institutions that might buffer the memorial from the more mercantile parts of the site.

It's bad enough that Whitehead and his patron - Gov. George Pataki - are willing to bargain away the principle of artistic freedom in hopes that this fuss will go away. It's bad enough that they are willing to cede part of their master plan. But its even worse that their tactics will probably fail.

The presence of these cultural institutions was the result of a long and thoughtful process. There have always been well-intentioned people who argued that the land near the memorial was hallowed and should stay empty. In the end, they were respectfully overruled. For the sake of temporary peace, Pataki is bargaining away principle and pragmatism.

<- Back to Recent News