Downtown arts groups impacted by attack - Front Page - effects of World Trade Center attacks - Brief Article

Art in America, Nov, 2001 by Stephanie Cash

Though New York's financial community was hardest hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, numerous cultural groups in the downtown area have also been affected. The New York State Council on the Arts, which distributes state funds to arts organizations, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs surveyed the area after the disaster and compiled a list of some 200 organizations that were impacted to varying degrees. According to Richard Schwartz, chairman of NYSCA, the situation for arts groups is "quite precarious," and efforts are under way to provide nonprofit cultural groups with access to federal funds allocated as monetary relief for businesses. He said most of the problems are financial and relate to disruptions in business, such as cancellations of performances and loss of underwriting. Physical damage, where it occurred, ranges from broken windows and offices filled with dust and debris to invasions by displaced rats.

But the facilities of one group, the nonprofit Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, were obliterated, along with its extensive archives. The LMCC survived the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, when its offices were located in Tower One. Like many of the building's tenants, the organization was back in its space a few months later. Since then the Council had moved its offices into Building Seven, which collapsed hours after the attack. Staff members in the building had evacuated earlier.

Among the Council's activities was World Views, a five-month residency program that provided unused office space for 15 artists' studios on the 91st and 92nd floors of Tower One. Tragically, one of those artists, Michael Richards, was in his studio at the time of the attack [see p. 166]. LMCC executive director Liz Thompson said that about $1 million in equipment and art work was destroyed in the artists' studios.

The LMCC is now operating out of free office space in Midtown, provided by France Telecom, through November; temporary studio space was donated by the artist-run Internet company Netomat.net, allowing artists to re-create pieces that were destroyed. The studio program would have held its open studios in mid-October. Instead, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in SoHo will present a show of the works [Dec. 1-Jan. 13].

Other artists in the program are Simon Aldridge, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Monika Bravo, Laurie Halsey Brown, Justine Cooper, Lucky DeBellevue, Carola Dertnig, Mahmoud Hamadani, Kara Hammond, Jeff Konigsberg, Motonobu Kurokawa, Geraldine Lau, Nathan See and Hyungsub Shin. Moukhtar Kocache, director of LMCC's visual arts programming, which includes the studio program, is scouting out new spaces for artists' studios. Because the program was geared so specifically to the Trade Center's architecture and diverse population, he would like to find another nonart location that will present similar opportunities. Kocache is also putting together a show of artists who have participated in the program; he hopes to sell the works as a collection to a New York City institution to raise funds for the artists and create an endowment for the LMCC.

The arts and events program at the World Financial Center has also been suspended indefinitely. Privately funded by the center's resident corporations, primarily American Express and Merrill Lynch, the program has mounted exhibitions in the Courtyard Gallery and staged performances and events in the Winter Garden, a glass-roofed structure overlooking the Hudson River. The Winter Garden sustained serious damage and will be rebuilt over the next 6 to 12 months. At press time, the WFC was still being used as a staging area for recovery workers. Program director Melissa Coley hopes that she and her staff will be back in their offices within 8 to 12 weeks following the restoration of public access. She aims to resume outdoor performances by next summer in nearby Liberty Plaza Park.

While the WFC program is well funded by private companies, downtown nonprofit groups are confronting serious funding problems. With many corporate sponsors still reeling from the attacks and an ongoing economic downturn, and with public and private funds largely diverted to disaster-relief charities, cultural leaders are aware that their cause is a low priority. The Tribeca alternative space Art in General, with an annual budget of $1 million, estimates that it has already lost $75,000 in projected support from individuals, corporations and government. Closed for two weeks after the attack, the space is in the midst of its year-long 20th-anniversary fund-raiser; it is going ahead with a benefit on Nov. 29. Director Holly Block said that all corporate sponsorship for the space, ranging from cash support to donations of liquor for events, has been put on hold or withdrawn. The state has already cut its funding by 10 percent, and she expects a 25-percent decrease in other donations. Whether these cuts and other unforeseen expenses result in staff layoffs remains to be seen.