Nine Eleven History Dot Net
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
This page lists exhibitions planned or being contemplated in response to the terrorist attacks. Please e-mail to [email protected]
Museum of the City of New York: History of the World Trade Center – Virtual exhibition detailing the background of the buildings, and featuring Port Authority photographs taken during construction. Available on-line now.
Museum of the City of New York: Virtual Union Square – Virtual Exhibition featuring submissions from the general public, in the spirit of the spontaneously occurring testaments in New York City’s Union Square. Available on-line now.
Museum of the City of New York: A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City March 2 – September 11, 2002
The first exhibition ever produced on the century-plus history of New Yorkers from Arabic-speaking lands, this exhibition features seven thematic sections:
1) Who is an Arab American?
2) Arab Immigration to New York City
3) Family
4) Religion
5) Culture
6) Work, and
7) Public Life.
More than two hundred objects, including archival and contemporary photographs (with some 50 images by renowned photographer Mel Rosenthal), documents, books, costumes, textiles, and household objects will be on view, illuminating the cultural and commercial contributions Arab Americans have made to New York City and the values and traditions that have connected them for generations.
The Museum had planned this exhibition and the related programming since sponsoring a symposium of the same title in 2000. The papers from the symposium have been published by Syracuse University Press and are in stores now.
New-York Historical Society : Infrastructure
May 21 – September 15, 2002
The collapse of the World Trade Center and its effect on life in the city has awakened new interest among New Yorkers in the infrastructure on which their survival depends. Infrastructure is a consumer’s eye view of the built environment. This exhibition’s real-life approach will surprise the public by demonstrating that infrastructure is much more than a network of beams, pipes and roadways. Infrastructure encompasses not only technological processes but the social processes behind its creation. This means that a cultural context is required for understanding infrastructure. The exhibition Infrastructure implicates civil engineers and the general public in the construction of systems that define our built environment and that are essential to the quality of life that we expect.
New-York Historical Society : The Twin Towers Recalled: The Photography of Camillo Jose Vergara
First anniversary exhibition, exact dates TBA
Camillo Jose Vergara has been photographing the World Trade Center since 1970, when it was still under construction. Vergara photographed the towers from many different angles at every time of day. Vergara calls this exhibition of his photographs “my personal reaction to the tragedy” of September 11, 2001. This selection from his work documents the buildings, the region they dominated and the void they left behind.
Museum of the City of New York: Voices of America Tribute Card
currently on exhibition
Six of thirty panels from the Voices of America Tribute Card that originated with Dan Borunda of Simi Valley, California, who organized a cross-country tour beginning at a patriotic rally on Moorpark, California. The panels on view contain signatures and sentiments of thanks and support for the New York uniformed and emergency services workers.
The New York City Fire Museum: The NYC Fire Museum has an ongoing, ever growing and changing display of September 11 related materials. This includes a sampling of some of the many cards and letters of sympathy sent to the FDNY, patches and memorabilia from firefighters around the world who have come by to show their solidarity, artwork including memorial statues donated by the Iron Workers’ union and the Oklahoma City Ret. Firefighters association, Fire Department charts showing which fire companies responded and how many fire fighters each lost, and the destruction at Ground Zero.
Up coming exhibitions include an exhibition of comic book art celebrating the heroes of September 11th in conjunction with The New York City Comic Book Museum; A display of art inspired by the events of September 11 and dedicated to the FDNY, A display of memorial T-shirts produced by the many fire companies which lost members.
MISSING: LAST SEEN AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 An Exhibition of the “Missing” Fliers Distributed by the Loved Ones of Those Who Perished at the World Trade Center in New York This tribute opens Jan. 2, 2002 at the Karpeles Manuscript & Library Museum in Santa Barbara. Organized by Mesoamerica Foundation in Mexico, it will be in Santa Barbara until Feb. 2, 2002. It then travels to San Francisco, CA (Feb. 6 – 24, 2002); then Washington, D.C. for March 6 – 29, 2002. In addition, smaller collections go on view in Hollywood, Florida Jan. 18 – Feb. 28, 2002 and in Portsmouth, VA from Feb. 14 – March 3, 2002. A total of 12 cities are scheduled to host this tribute.
Van Alen Institute RENEWING, REBUILDING, REMEMBERING, a photographic exhibition, opening in February, to inspire and inform New Yorkers and the nation about cities that have rebuilt in the wake of manmade and natural disasters. Among the cities represented will be Berlin, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon; Oklahoma City, USA; Kobe, Japan; and Manchester, England. Initiated by the Institute in the wake of 9.11, this exhibition of photographs, renderings, and models illustrates diverse responses to traumatic events that have had a dramatic impact on urban life. Following an enthusiastic response to a call for ideas from an informal group of advisors ranging across design and civic disciplines, VAI selected a number of temporary and permanent public architecture and art projects that are examples of how citizens have rebuilt, remade, and rethought their urban life. Rather than concentrating on attacks, damage, or devastation, the exhibit focuses on reconstruction success stories where vital urban places are integrated with specific monuments to tragedy, working together as a living memorial.
Lowell National Historical Park, Stepping Into An Uncertain World Public Art Exhibit Extended Through September 11, 2002
The popular exhibit Stepping Into An Uncertain World, currently on display at the Boott Gallery at Lowell National Historical Park, will be extended through September 11, 2002. The exhibit was initiated as a public art project for Lowell Women’s Week 2002 (held in March). It was inspired by both the horrific and the heroic events of September 11, 2001. On that day, shoes became a symbol of survival as many women in New York City kicked off their shoes so that they could escape and survive. The exhibit is dedicated to those women who ran and in memory of those who were unable to run.
Stepping Into An Uncertain World focuses on shoes as something concrete, close to home, a part of everyday life. Participants were invited to draw a picture of a shoe, draw on a shoe, write about a shoe, make a photocopy of a favorite shoe, glue sayings to a shoe or any shoe ideas or images the imagination creates. The majority of the shoes and shoe related expressions on exhibit were submitted by women and girls from the Greater Lowell area. Shoes have also been sent in from across the country and the world. While submissions were not required to relate directly to the events of September 11th, many participants chose to commemorate the event through their artwork. Stepping Into An Uncertain World was curated by Maxine Farkas and Gay Tracy, resident artists at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios in Lowell Massachusetts. The Boott Gallery is located at 400 Foot of John Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. For information about Stepping Into An Uncertain World, gallery hours, or Lowell Women’s Week, call Lowell National Historical Park at 978-970-5000.
The New Jersey Historical Society at 52 Park Place, Newark, NJ will mark the anniversary of September 11, 2001 with the opening of its exhibition Changed Lives: New Jersey Remembers September 11th, 2001. The exhibition, which will run until December 7, 2002, includes personal testimony, objects, art and photographs collected by the Historical Society, documenting New Jersey’s response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
Gallery hours have been extended from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on September 11, 2002. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (973) 596-8500.
Related information can be found at American Association of Museums,