Museums, Art Centers Make Sept. 11 Plans

To commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, museums and art centers nationwide are devising their own projects and presentations for America’s Freedoms: A Day of Remembrance, a grass-roots project facilitated by the American Assn. of Museums and the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C.

Robert Martin, director of the federal organization, said the project arose from a January gathering in Chicago of 40 museum leaders from across the country. Martin said he expected the discussion to revolve around the financial impact of Sept. 11 on museums; instead, the participating institutions were less interested in money and more consumed with devising a way to band together on the one-year anniversary to provide a range of special services and opportunities.

“The idea was not to come up with a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter, ‘you’ve-got-to-do-this’ program,” Martin said. “They have done all the work, we have provided no funds. The museum community is incredibly diverse--we have zoos and aquariums, museums devoted to children, or science and technology. You decide what you want to do in your community.”

In North Carolina, the Charlotte Museum of History will ring its American Freedom Bell on the hour on Sept. 11. Several New York City museums will feature photo exhibitions on the history of the World Trade Center as well as photos of the attacks. In Washington, D.C., the National Museum of American History will open a show of artifacts from plane crash sites. The Hibel Museum of Art in Jupiter, Fla., will ask each Sept. 11 visitor to place a flower on the museum green.

The list of participants, which leaders say is evolving, does not yet include any major Los Angeles museums. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art said the museum is considering a Sept. 11 commemoration but is still formulating its plan. The museum will provide that information to the Day of Remembrance project for its Web site when it becomes available. Two smaller Los Angeles art centers--Forest Lawn Museum in the Hollywood Hills and Corita Art Center at the Immaculate Heart Community in Hollywood, have already signed on to participate. Forest Lawn plans a mural created by bereaved children.

Getty Center spokeswoman Karen Nelson said that the Getty so far has no plans to join. “A lot of museums say they are waiving admission, but we already have free admission,” Nelson said. “We definitely hope, like last year, that people would come and use the museum as a place of solace and refuge.” Nelson added that the Getty will devote the September issue of its conservation newsletter to the issue of how to commemorate historic sites with painful memories.

Katherine W. Lee, spokeswoman for downtown’s Museum of Contemporary Art, said that the national project is “on our radar screen,” but the museum will be closed between Sunday--when its current Andy Warhol show closes--and Sept. 15.

MOCA will take advantage of a coincidence to educate museum patrons about Sept. 11: Later in the year, MOCA will display a large-scale sculpture by Nancy Rubins, constructed of airplane parts. Though Rubins created the piece before the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, Lee said MOCA has already discussed with the artist the possibility that the piece’s visual impact could lead to discussion of the tragedy.

The museums of San Diego’s Balboa Park, including San Diego Art Institute, San Diego Aerospace Museum and San Diego Zoo, have been plugged into the Day of Remembrance project for five months. Many have special exhibition plans or reduced-ticket plans, and the zoo will offer some free tickets to emergency workers and their families.

On Sept. 11, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum gallery will present an all-day memorial reading from the book “Portraits of Grief 9/11/01,” a collection of New York Times obituaries of those who died at the World Trade Center.