NEW YORK CITY, NY -- On the morning of September 11, 2001, two hijacked planes flew directly into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In the heat of the ensuing massive fire, the towers crumpled.

Over 3,000 people died. Among the arts community dead were artist Michael Richards, writer David Angell, photographer Berry Berenson, and former ballet dancer Sonia Morales Puopolo. Located at 5 World Trade Center, the office of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, (LMCC) one of Manhattan's largest and oldest arts councils, was destroyed, and all their work was lost.

Michael Richards, a Jamaican-born sculptor, had been an artist in residence in LMCC's World Views, a program which gave artists windowed studio space in Tower One of the World Trade Center. Richards, who had a space on the 92nd floor, was working in his studio, when the tower was attacked.

Michael Richards' powerful work, which examines justice and injustice in troubled times, remains an enduring symbol to bravery and endurance. In TAR BABY VS. ST. SEBASTIAN, (1999) he reacts to the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, the heroic World War II air force pilots at whose alma mater black men were used for live experiments on syphilis. The sculpture, which echoes Renaissance depictions of Saint Sebastian pierced with arrows, consists of the artist's cast body, in the uniform of the airmen -- brutally pierced with fighter planes.

"While Michael's untimely death is a grave tragedy to us all, his life and work will be preserved by museums and galleries, and treasured by friends, family and new viewers, and recorded in the history of American art for generations to come," Christine Kim, Assistant Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Franklin Sirmans, Independent Curator and Critic, wrote in a joint statement.

The World Trade Center studios, where many artists were working in the World Views residency program, were all destroyed. At the time of the attack, the artists in the program -- many of whom lost all their work -- were Simon Aldridge, Monika Bravo, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Laurie Halsey Brown, Justine Cooper, Lucky Debellevue, Carola Dertnig, Mahmoud Hamadani, Kara Hammond, Jeff Konigsberg, Motonobu Kurokawa, Geraldine Lau, Nathan See, and Hyungsub Shin. In addition, several artists, including writer Jeff Byles and the Ocean Earth collaborative, were working on special projects in the WTC.

Mahmoud Hamadani, whose work encompasses richly detailed abstract ink on paper drawings, was working on a large scale installation. Utilizing the dynamics of light and shadow which pervade his drawings, the installation would have given participants the feeling of walking into his drawings. Because this work incorporated his drawings from many years, he lost over a hundred drawings as well as the installation he was working on.

Almost on a daily basis he remembers small things about the lost drawings, In particular, he thinks about one drawing he did two or three days before the Towers were destroyed, he told Arts Wire last October. "It was a lighthearted drawing. In a moment of restlessness, I had poured some ink and was playing with the ink on paper. The next day when I looked at it, I really loved it. Now it is impossible to recreate."

Illuminating the night -- from March 11, the 6 month anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, until April 13 -- two immense vertical beams of light now rise into the sky from dusk to dawn. In a symbolic recreation of the lost towers of the World Trade Center, these columns of light not only evoke the memory of lost lives and symbolically restore the devastatingly altered New York City skyline but also celebrate the spirit of all New Yorkers who are working to rebuild and renew their city.

The work of architects John Bennett and Gustavo Bonevardi of PROUN Space Studio, of artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda, of architect Richard Nash Gould, and of lighting designer Paul Marantz -- with production and support provided by two non-profit cultural institutions The Municipal Art Society and Creative Time, with the assistance of Battery Park City Authority -- TRIBUTE AND LIGHT is formed from two banks of 44 searchlights.

"It's hard to backtrack and remember exactly how we had the idea to build something out of light," Gustavo Bonevardi writes on SLATE. "My partner, John Bennett, and I were not the only ones who had it; as the project moved forward, we worked with collaborators, Richard Nash Gould, Julian LaVerdiere, and Paul Myoda, who had nearly the same idea at almost the same time. I think it's because we had all been staring at the towers for so many hours that day. The after-image was practically burned in our retinas. So the idea of trying to evoke what was lost was almost self-evident. In our minds' eye, the image was as clear as the towers themselves had been the day before. "

In the wake of the tragedy, the arts community has responded to the tragedy in ways which are as diverse as our community itself:

• from the NEW YORK TIMES' compelling PORTRAITS OF GRIEF which emphasize the importance of each and every life lost in the tragedy; to Marie-Christine Katz' MAPS OF DISPLACEMENTS (SEPTEMBER 11TH) an installation which calls attention to the many people displaced by the disaster -- integrating drawings and sculptures (in paper and fabric with wire, wax, thread, ash, ink and pencil) with interviews with displaced people who lived and worked in the WTC area before 9/11. Katz' work was included in 911 SHOW/ARTISTS Respond, an exhibition at the Bronx River Art Center. (which originated at the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook Brooklyn)

• from painter Wendy Cook's compelling account of the rescue of 17 pets from the disaster area; to visual and performance artist Pat Oleszko's narrative of working to help victims in the aftermath. She described the disaster in this way:

  "Dust was filling the air and the horror seeped like the foul smell slowly into consciousness. Mesmerized by the sight, I watched the fire move, and then the horror of maybe forty people jump from the Towers of Babble, as individuals, then in groups. Even watching it live, it was incomprehensible until the north tower imploded like Vesuvius in reverse. Then Building Five fell, down like a sheet of water at the end of my street."

• from poet Kate Daniels, a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, who brought her poetry and poetry by her colleagues and students to New York City and placed it on a shrine of posters, flowers, candles and photographs on the sidewalk in front of St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway; to poet Eliot Katz' searing examination of "The Logic of War" (published in BOOG CITY, a new New York City poetry newsletter) in which he concludes:

  "For now, we are teaching the terrorists a clear lesson
  that you don't solve your gripes with bombs
  unless you're the world's sole superpower."

On the Internet, Nina Meledandri, a painter living and working a mile from the site, created THEARTPROJECT, a forum for visual artists to share their personal responses to the tragedy. To date over 125 artists have contributed work to theARTproject -- including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, web art, video and communal projects.

"Six months later, as the recovery process continues, each of us might be at a different stage," she writes on the site. "Wherever you are, theARTproject exists to provide an opportunity for reflection and for a shared sense of community. The site offers a wide range of responses from artists across this country and around the world; what they have in common is that each submission is an attempt by another human being to share something meaningful about this tragedy with you."

In New York City, Artsgenesis has initiated We, the children, an arts-in-education project intended to promote healing and unity. Working with a team of grief counselors and visual, theatre, and writing artists, the program helps children voice their complex and painful feelings regarding the tragedy.

In New York City, The Museum of the City of New York is hosting the exhibition BROTHERHOOD: IN STRENGTH AND SORROW - IMAGES OF THE FDNY. The exhibition features the work of 69 photographers, who documented the firehouses which lost members in the tragedy, as well as the lives of the firefighters and the reactions of their communities.

"On September 11, 2001, the New York City Fire Department helped save the lives of 25,000 civilians. On the same day, the FDNY lost 343 of its members. These numbers attest both to the magnitude of loss on this one day and to the skills and valor of the men and women who serve in the FDNY," the Museum states to introduce the work.

The Bronx River Art Center hosted two shows WTC - LIVING IN THE SHADOWS A 25 YEAR COLLECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE and 911 SHOW / ARTISTS RESPOND, which originated at the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook Brooklyn. In the responses to the tragedy as well as in their documentation of the area before September 11, 2001, the artists whose work was included in these exhibitions provide viewers with different entry ways to understand their own experiences of terror, grief, numbness, and dislocation.

For instance, Moses Ros describes his DEEP IMPACT 2001 in this way: "The artwork is composed of an upside down subway map of lower Manhattan with a superimposed outline of a head representing the collective consciousness of the city, the nation, the world. At the place where the WTC once stood is a red blast, a head wounded that turned the world upside down, a world forever changed and sadder for it."

Karin Schaefer, who responded to the New York Times' continuing series of profiles of those who lost their lives at the WTC, describes her work in this way: "Memorializing a detail of their lives, I make drawings of their commute to work. Using a 75 mile radius map, I draw a dot that represent each person in the town or neighborhood where they lived, and the route that I imagine they took to work on that day. These drawings are studies for a larger memorial piece where I will etch and draw the maps onto glass, then layer the sheets of glass creating a thick transparent wall of lines all converging at a single point.

"Given the tremendous diversity of these individuals whose short stories I have read, I think about the tragic destiny that they all shared through coming together at this one point in time and space....," she writes.

Currently included in the WHITNEY BIENNIAL's sound and performance program, is Stephen Vitiello's soundscape which uses a 1999 recording he made in his studio on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center.

In the American Music Center's web magazine NEWMUSICBOX, Vitielo describes how in the work he brought the sound from outside in through his studio's thick, sealed windows by affixing inexpensive contact microphones to the windows and accentuating certain frequencies and taking out others "until I started to hear life outside. The first sound I heard was bells ringing from somewhere in the city. I never heard them again but it was beautiful. The sounds heard and gathered each day varied, depending on wind conditions and work that might be going on or outside the building. At times there was a massed sound of everything at once that gave the effect of an orchestra tuning up into a large reverb chamber. At other moments, I could hear people on the streets below. The planes and helicopters buzzed or stormed by.....The effect was that people who had formerly seen the view from my window as some sort of cinematic fabrication now were able to touch on an experience of the physicality of the space in and around the building and our own vulnerability."

In DARKNESS and LIGHT THE WORLD AFTER 9/11, artist Rhonda Schaller, whose studio is 10 blocks away from where the twin towers used to stand, is exhibiting works made on paper by thickly covering reds, yellows and blues with black and white oil pastel -- so that the colors beneath "shine through, creating a sense of inner power and process contained."

"These works are post 9/11. I had no other choice but to begin to make these works, where darkness and light are redefined in the collective unconscious," she writes in her statement. Noting that as an artist she is responding to a "major shift in the reality of the community", she states: "What does light, hope, forgiveness, attachment mean in this context? What undercurrent of light do we tap into, and live with, hold onto, while we learn to coexist when there are shadows everywhere. In this truth time, when the universe has shifted, and light and dark are above and below, who are we? These works are personal, and collective, and share a vision of a shift in perception where transformation can happen in an instant."

Displaying over 1,000 reactions from a global call for responses to the events of September 11, Exit Art in New York City is hosting the exhibition REACTIONS through March 30, 2002.

For REACTIONS, Exit Art invited a worldwide public to respond to how the attacks on the United States have affected their lives. Conceived by Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman and coordinated by Jodi Hanel and Bibi Mart, the project sent out over 10,000 emailed invitations and over 8,000 mailed letters. The invitation was also posted as an open call on their website.

They asked people to share how the events altered their behavior -- toward others, their city, their daily life -- and now in the aftermath, how these events and all that has happened since the attacks, have changed their perception of reality and the world around them. The only requirement was that the submission had to be something that would fit on an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper. Poetry, musical scores, texts, letters, drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, and many other forms of response were received from children as young as 7 years old and from people all over the world including from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America. Every response was exhibited.

"My name is Marc and my friend Joey worked on the 105th Floor of No 1 World Trade Center. After September 11, I put his 'missing flyer' all over the streets of this changed city, choosing my spots as if I were painting graffiti, looking for the best light, the easiest places to see my friend's face," begins Marc Whalen's contribution to Reactions.

The work is about Joey, who he met at age 5, whose father, a Vietnam Vet and a retired FDNY fire fighter helped him learn to ride a bike. "I have cried so much that I have become empty inside. My childhood hero has been stolen from me, and I will miss him forever," the text concludes. Below it is a picture of Joey as a child, standing beside an American Flag, and the dates: 1974-2001.

In Jem Cohen and Kim Maley's BOTH WANT WAR, BOTH UNELECTED The top halves of the faces of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden -- side by side grainy black and white newsprint quality photos -- are divided from the bottom halves of their faces by the words "BOTH WANT WAR, BOTH UNELECTED."

On a page divided by two hearts -- red white and blue, the top one torn in half, the bottom one inverted, -- Alex Steinweiss has written "Stop Hate" in white on a field of black.

In a statement circulated by email, writer/performance artist Marty Pottenger described the remarkable art works and performances which occurred in Union square, writing that that "Over a couple thousand people are there at Union Square at any one time. 5 white cellists are playing Bach under a circle of trees, as 10 black young men are playing trumpets and trombones in the center of a circle of 300 hundred people. Hundreds of photos of the missing people are on trees, fences, lampposts, with scores of candles burning below them. The subway stop is a fence of pictures of the missing loved ones."

The Artists Network described a performance at Union Square in this way:

"At 12 noon Saturday, over 100 artists all wearing black filed onto Union Square at 14th Street in New York City where many people have been gathering for the last 10 days to grieve and to try to make sense of what happened on September 11. A hush fell over the crowd at Union Square as the artists took their places in a semi-circle. For one hour they stood in silence wearing face masks and placards silk-screened with "OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR."

A few months later, poet Eliot Katz looked at the aftermath of September 11, in "The Logic of War".

In the poem he asks why the mainstream press hasn't focused more on alternatives to a long war, alternatives such as "investigations, intelligence, freezing assets, police action arrests plus a more democratic egalitarian foreign policy", and he calls attention to the way human life is valued/not valued as he describes the CNN ticker tape of the WTC death count, the moving New York Times obituaries of the victims, the videotape of Bin Laden's gloating over American civilian death counts, and the lack of coverage in this country of an estimated 3,700 Afghan civilian deaths.

"Poetry is a great art form for exploring and expressing one's thoughts and feelings about major events," says Katz who is the author of UNLOCKING THE EXITS, (Coffee House Press, 1999) a cofounder of LONG SHOT literary magazine, and a coeditor of POEMS FOR THE NATION, (Seven Stories Press, 2000) a collection of contemporary political poems compiled by the late poet Allen Ginsberg. "After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, hundreds of new and old poems were circulating -- poems of grief, poems of witness, social verse exploring what America might do next to help create a safer and more humane world. Poetry seemed necessary both for its value in psychological processing and for its role in social expression. There's something about poetry that seems to dig deep into the minds and souls of readers -- a sense of profound, lasting significance aided by poetry's condensed phrasing, thought-inducing line breaks, surprising juxtapositions, inventive imagery and rhythms, unique angles of perception, etc."

He also noted that "Of course, good journalism can also achieve the most profound level of importance, and there has been some excellent journalism in the alternative press -- in print, online, and in such radio shows as Amy Goodman's DEMOCRACY NOW. But with the mainstream media, especially TV news, so dominated these days by commercial interests and a relatively narrow range of opinions, (which has become even narrower since the war in Afghanistan started), poetry seems to be growing ever more crucial as a public arena open to a wide variety of opinions and forms of expression."

In a poem which begins" "i have not written one word.
no poetry in the ashes south of canal street."

poet Suheir Hammad writes:

"....the dead are called lost and their families hold up shaky printouts in front of us through screens smoked up. we are looking for iris, mother of three. please call with any information. we are searching for priti, last seen on the 103rd floor. she was talking to her husband on the phone and the line went. please help us find george, also known as adel. his family is waiting for him with his favorite meal. i am looking for my son, who was delivering coffee. i am looking for my sister girl, she started her job on monday.
i am looking for peace. i am looking for mercy. i am looking for evidence of compassion. any evidence of life. i am looking for life...."

The World Trade Center (1970 - 1977, steel frame, glass curtain wall) consisted of seven buildings and a shopping concourse. Its 110-story rectangular twin towers -- one rising to 1,362 ft and the other to 1,368 ft -- were designed by Minoru Yamasaki. (Yamasaki and Associates, with Emery Roth and Sons) The towers and concourse portion of the center were completed in 1973 at a cost of $750 million.

"Today I watched something crumble that I thought would stand forever. I don't remember the New York skyline without the twin towers. And now I will never be able to look at it again without thinking of them, or what happened to them on September 11th," begins a post from Ann Campbell on a SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 - REFLECTION SCROLL, which was started on the Internet by the Arts Council of Chautauqua County as a place for people to record their thoughts about the tragedy.

"Visually, the World Trade Centers were, for me, magnets, anchors, rudders. I am now lopsided, adrift, disoriented, lost," Susanna Heller whose work was included in WTC Living in the Shadows at the Bronx River Art Center, writes in a statement about her work.

The Municipal Art Society, in partnership with over 50 civic and community organizations, and a network of partners have launched IMAGINE New York, a series of public "visioning" workshops, culminating during the week of April 11. They are inviting people in neighborhoods and towns throughout the region to come together to voice their opinions, ideas, concerns and visions for the future of the World Trade Center site. Details of workshops are available on their website at http://www.imagineny.org

Sources/resources:

MICHAEL RICHARDS
" ...To Carry Me Home
A Reprise of the 1996 Artists-in-Residence Exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem" -- http://www.studiomuseuminharlem.org/richardsexhibit.html

THE MICHAEL RICHARDS FUND -- http://www.lmcc.net/mrfund.htm
The Fund's mission is to support emerging visual artists of the Caribbean, or of Caribbean descent, by offering grants, by nomination only, to promising individuals who demonstrate an ability and commitment to making substantial contributions to the arts.

LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL CENTER - http://www.lmcc.net

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT -- http://www.creativetime.org/towers/

Gustavo Bonevardi
"Tribute in Light" Explained"
SLATE -- http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063051
March 11, 2002

"Portraits in Grief"
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/portraits/index.html

National Coalition Against Censorship
ART NOW - NATIONWIDE ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO THE SEPTEMBER 11 TRAGEDY AND ITS AFTERMATH -- http://www.ncac.org/projects/art_now/main.html

BRONX RIVER ART CENTER-- http://www.bronxriverart.org

KENTER INTERNATIONAL DRAWING SPACE -- http://www.kentlergallery.org/

Kate Daniels
"English Professor Delivers Poetry to World Trade Center Shrine"
VANDERBILT REGISTER -- http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/register/Dec10_01/story5.html
December 10-16, 2001

THEARTPROJECT -- http://www.theartproject.net/

WAGING PEACE THROUGH SINGING-- http://www.iwagepeace.com

ARTSGENESIS -- http://artsgenesis.net/

ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP Helpful Arts-based Projects and Resources in Coping with Disaster -- http://aep-arts.org/ArtsResources-Disaster.html

MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK -- http://www.mcny.org/

DARKNESS and LIGHT THE WORLD AFTER 9/11
Works on paper by Rhonda Schaller
on view April 23 - June 1 2002 at the Rhonda Schaller Studio 59 Franklin Street, between Broadway and Lafayette, ground floor. An Opening reception -- Friday April 26th 6 PM - 8 PM.

EXIT ART -- http://www.exitart.org

MARTY POTTENGER -- Email: mpott@infohouse.com

THE ARTISTS NETWORK -- http://www.artistsnetwork.org/news/news14.html

WHITNEY BIENNIAL -- http://www.whitney.org/2002biennial/

Stephen Vitiello
American Music Center -- NEWMUSICBOX
http://www.newmusicbox.org/091101/vitiello.nmbx

Eliot Katz
"The Logic of War"
BOOG CITY
February, 2002

Eliot Katz
"When the Skyline Crumbles"
MOBYLIVES -- http://www.mobylives.com/Katz_account.html

Suheir Hammad
"there have been no words"
ARTISTS NETWORK -- http://www.nyfa.org/fyi/fyi_winter2002_pg1.htm
Winter 2002

GREAT BUILDINGS - THE WORLD TRADE CENTER - http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/World_Trade_Center.html

IMAGINE NEW YORK -- http://www.imagineny.org

__FROM TED BERGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
_In the Wake of the Terrorist Attack, Artists and Arts Organizations Rally to Help Those in Need; Jamaican Sculptor Michael Richards Missing; LMCC Offices Obliterated
__WOLFGANG STAEHLE - 2001, Postmasters, NYC: a work intended to offer viewers "the antidote of a reflective slowdown of beautiful images" now reflects the destruction of September 11
__"We too can use very simple things - tape, pencils, crayons, a song, movement, and yes even matt knives, to help the healing process - to bring light into this terrible time of darkness." - Naj Wykoff
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur091801.html
September 18, 2001

__Reports of Arts Community Losses Accumulate as Artists and Arts Administrators Cope with the Aftermath of Disaster; Stories of Survival and of Helping Hands Bring Light in the Darkness; In Union Square, Shrines Express a Collective Grief
__As Americans Gather Together to End Terrorist Attacks, Freedom of Expression is a Vitally Important Liberty: Bipartisan Coalition Urges Protection of America's Constitutionally Guaranteed Freedoms
__Michael Richards, 1963 - 2001
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur092501.html
September 25, 2001

__Many Artists in LMCC World Views Program Lost all Their Work; But Group Pulls Together to Mourn Those Who Died and to Dialogue about the Future
__Ocean Earth: POLICY MODELS - Rockford Museum of Arts, IL
__Painter Wendy Cook Rescues 17 Pets from WTC Disaster Area
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur100201.html
October 2, 2001

__THE LANDS WITHIN ME - EXPRESSIONS BY CANADIAN ARTISTS OF ARAB ORIGIN Will Open at Canadian Museum of Civilization as Scheduled
__DOUG AND MIKE STARN: RAMPARTS CAFE -- The Jewish Museum, NYC
__HERE IS NEW YORK Invites Photographs Connected to the Destruction of the World Trade Center; Proceeds Will go to Children who are Victims of the Catastrophe
__Photographer Loni Efron's Images Record her September 11 Escape
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur100801.html
October 8, 2001

__"Dust was filling the air and the horror seeped like the foul smell slowly into consciousness...." - Pat Oleszko
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur111301.html
November 13, 2001

__Boston Symphony Orchestra Cancels Performances of Adams/Goodman DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER Choruses
__WORLD VIEWS OPEN STUDIO - LMCC and the New Museum Present New Work from the Artists Whose Studios Were in the WTC on Sept 11, 2001
__Four Washington, DC Area Art Schools Collaborate in an Exhibition of Student Work in Response to the September 11 Attack -- George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur120401.html
December 4, 2001

__"From Exit Art in New York City to the Santa Fe Art Institute, Artists and Arts Organizations Create and Foster Art About September 11
__CANDLES AND FLAGS by Barbara Ann Levy
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2002/cur012902.html
January 29, 2002

On the six month anniversary of the September terror, I am struck by the air of sadness that still remains. The glaring clarity of the sun reminded me of that day as well. I had to go to Battery Park City this morning to bear witness and gain strength. Being there convinced me again that the power of the human spirit far outweighs the sadness

Since its inception on September 18, ArtistCares has grown immensely. We have worked to mobilize the artistic community of New York City, enlisting over 200 professionals who want to use their talents to help in the recovery effort. We have spent a lot of time seeking advice from the healing community, including art therapists, clinical psychologists and others who work in the health field. From this extensive research, we have developed Creative Healing Workshops and Artist Preparation Workshops. These Artist Preparation workshops prepare artists and therapists to serve as facilitators in the Creative Healing Workshops. From the start, I realized the strength of this endeavor would be a team approach. We have not wavered from this stance for a minute.

Teams of two artists, a therapist and a storyteller will deliver the workshops. We are beginning to receive a large amount of requests for services from all over the country.

We have established strategic alliances with numerous organizations, including Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Henry Street Settlement, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Staten Island University Hospital and others. We are planning a forum to bring together the arts and health/healing communities in early Spring. We are also working on a fundraiser at a Chelsea gallery in May.

Another exciting project is a peer-to-peer mentoring program in which high school students will be given extensive training to deliver the Creative Healing Workshops for their peers.

The heartfelt response to this initiative has been so encouraging. Thank you again to all who have contributed ideas, energy, money and their time. I am deeply grateful. I also want to again publicly thank the Force of Nature that is Karen Fitzgerald. Since the early days of this project, Karen has demonstrated a single-minded vision that this project must go forward. Thank you Karen.

As the months propel onward, ArtistCares will do what we can to help all of us take back that basic human right, the right to that garden of ideas which is the creative process. In that garden, we will plant possibility and harvest our futures.

(c) 2002 Alan Lynes - For permission to redistribute this contribution, please contact him at alynes99@yahoo.com

ARTISTCARES website -- http://www.artistcares.org

The National Medal of Arts Recipients for the year 2001 are:

• Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Modern Dance Company and School (New York, N.Y.)
• Rudolfo Anaya, Writer (Albuquerque, N.M.)
• Johnny Cash, Singer and Songwriter (Hendersonville, Tenn.)
• Kirk Douglas, Actor and Producer (Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Helen Frankenthaler, Painter (Darien, Conn.)
• Judith Jamison, Artistic Director, Choreographer and Dancer (New York, N.Y.)
• Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Mike Nichols, Director and Producer (New York, N.Y.)

The National Humanities Medal Recipients for the year 2001 are:

• Jose Cisneros, Historical Illustrator (El Paso, Texas)
• Robert Coles, Child Psychologist, Researcher and Professor of Psychiatry (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Sharon Darling, Teacher and Literacy Advocate (Louisville, Ky.)
• William Manchester, Historian and Writer (Middletown, Conn.)
• National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Organization (Washington, D.C.)
• Richard Peck, Author (New York, N.Y.)
• Eileen Jackson Southern, Musicologist (Port Charlotte, Fla.)
• Tom Wolfe, Author (New York, N.Y.)

Established by Congress in 1984, the National Medal of Arts, honors individuals and organizations who, in the President's judgment, deserve special recognition for their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States. The National Humanities Medal, first inaugurated in 1988 as the Charles Frankel Prize, honors individuals or groups whose work has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities."

Each year, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities seek nominations from individuals and organizations across the country. The National Council on the Arts and the National Council on the Humanities, then provide recommendations to the President, who selects the recipients.

Source: THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS -- http://www.arts.gov/endownews/news02/Medals.html

For instance, one of last year's winners, The Great Basin Young Chautauqua in Reno Nevada, is open to children ages 8-18 who commit to developing a character in January and spend more than six months reading biographies, learning stories and rehearsing their character in front of other Young Chautauquans.

Accompanied by a cash award of $10,000, the Coming Up Taller Awards not only reward these projects with recognition but also contribute support to their continued work. The program is a project of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Each year, ten awards of $10,000 each are presented to Coming Up Taller Awards honorees. Last year's winners were

• Artists for Humanity, Boston, MA
• Artists-in-Training, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
• Arts and Cultural Preservation Program Youth/Elder Initiative, Tohono O'odham Community Action, Arizona
• Boys' Choir of Tallahassee
• Documentary Workshop, Educational Video Center, New York City
• Great Basin Young Chautauquans, Nevada Humanities Committee
• Inner-City Arts After School Program, Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles
• James E. Biggs Early Childhood Education Center, Kentucky
• Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program
• Young Strings, Dallas Symphony Orchestra

"The fourth annual Coming Up Taller Awards also are about magic, imagination, and excellence. These awards celebrate the creativity of our young people and the excellence of afterschool, weekend and summer arts and humanities programs for children, especially those who live in family and community circumstances that offer few opportunities for discovery and creative expression."

Nominations are invited for this year's award. The deadline is Friday, April 26.

For details, visit: http://www.cominguptaller.org

In Fergus Falls, MN, in the heart of the central business district -- directly across the Street from the Center for the Arts, the city's thriving performing arts center -- Artspace projects is converting the former Hotel Kaddatz into artists housing.

The architect is BKV in Mennieapolis.

"We have now secured approximately half of the funding necessary for the project," Michael Byrd, Artspace projects told Arts Wire. Finance applications are pending for the remaining funds, and the construction start is scheduled for 2003.

Minneapolis-based Artspace, has developed live work housing across the country. The Kaddatz project will create 10 units of mixed income housing in a former 1915 hotel -- six one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units, a mix which has been chosen to meet the housing needs identified by a market survey of artist households in the area. The project will also create 4,200 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and 6,000 square feet of community arts center space in the basement.

"We anticipate that the project will serve a mix of young and middle-age singles and couples," Artspace states. "The two-bedroom units will provide housing suitable for families with children. The project will provide an elevator serving all levels of the building; all units will thus be accessible to persons with physical disabilities."

For years, the Kaddatz, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was Fergus Falls' leading hotel. It featured a restaurant on the first floor, and during Prohibition a speakeasy flourished in the basement. In the 1950s, a department store took over the first floor.

According to Michael Byrd, the project budget is $2.3 million. Of this amount, about $1.5 million will be applied to residential rehabilitation of the structure. The remaining $800,000 will be allocated to non-residential uses, including restoration of the grand staircase that originally connected the main floor to the residential floors above. The plan is to extend the staircase to the community art center space on the lower level.

The mission of Artspace is "to create and manage space where artists can live, work, exhibit, perform, and conduct business. We pursue this mission through development projects, asset management activities, consulting services, and community-building activities that serve artists and arts organizations of all disciplines, cultures, and economic circumstances. By creating this space, Artspace supports the continued professional growth of artists and enhances the cultural and economic vitality of the surrounding community."

Sources/resources:

ARTSPACE PROJECTS -- http://www.artspaceprojects.org/
Artspace Projects has moved to its new home at the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art. Their new address is: 250 Third Ave. N., Suite 500, Minneapolis, MN 55401 tel: 612- 333-9012
More information about the Hotel Kaddatz project is available at http://www.artspaceprojects.org/inprogress/kaddatz/index.html

"City of Chicago/Artspace Partnership To Rehabilitate Former School into Pilot Live/Work Space for Artists; Architect is The Architects Enterprise, Yves Jeanty"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur112001.html
November 20, 2001

HAMMEL, GREEN AND ABRAHAMSON, INC. (HGA) -- http://www.hga.com

CHAMPIONS OF THE ARTS: NYFA TO AUCTION WORKS BY ARTISTS, WRITERS, PERFORMERS TO BENEFIT ARTIST-FOCUSED PROGRAMS

Live and silent auctions of donated work and other contributions by established and emerging artists of all disciplines will benefit the ongoing support of artists and arts organizations by the New York Foundation for the Arts. (NYFA)

Co-creator and administrator of the New York Arts Recovery Fund -- created to help artists and arts organizations since the attack on September 11 -- NYFA, now in its 30th year, gives more money and support to arts organizations and artists of all disciplines than any other comparable organization in the country: nearly $11 million in grants and services annually. Its annual fellowships to individual artists will be announced in May.

"The heartening number of works donated by artists -- remarkable in its variety -- will be used to further the ongoing activities of the New York Foundation for the Arts," said Theodore S. Berger, Executive Director of NYFA. "The fact that artists are helping their own at such an important time says much for the resiliency and spirit of this special community."

The artists who donated work to be auctioned include Judith Barry, Ross Bleckner, Trisha Brown, Maureen Connor, Molissa Fenley, Karen Finley, Edward Grazda, Spalding Gray, Bob Holman/Elizabeth Murray, Tony Kushner, Eve Andree Laramee, Marcia Lippman, Meredith Monk, Cyrilla Mozenter, Tetsu Okuhara, Philip Pearlstein, Ruth Root, Cindy Sherman, Susan Unterberg, and William Wegman, among many others.

Benefit Chair: Howard Rothman, NYFA Trustee
Honorary Chairs:Bob Holman and Elizabeth Murray
Auctioneer: Rick Wester of Gagosian Gallery
Curator: William Stover

For more Information: contact Tiffany Lacey at 212-366-6900, extension 207 or visit http://www.nyfa.org/auction.htm

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) gives more money and support to arts organizations and artists of all disciplines than any other comparable organization in the country: nearly $11 million in grants and services annually.

Its Fellowships of $7,000 each go to as many as 170 New York State artists every year from a field of 16 disciplines, covering the visual, performing, media, and literary arts. NYFA also gives grants and services to strengthen small arts organizations and provides artists with career development support through workshops, hotlines, and print and electronic publications.

NYFA's annual budget of nearly $12 million comes from individual, corporate, foundation, and public sources, as well as NYFA's fiscal sponsorship services for artists and emerging organizations.

For complete information about NYFA and its ongoing programs, activities and services, please see http://www.nyfa.org or call 212-366-6900.

In support of their commitment to socially responsible corporate citizenship, following the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Gateway is donating up to 4,500 computers used in the Winter Games to nonprofit organizations.

Grant consideration is limited to eligible organizations recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit entity -- with priority given to schools and community centers whose programs help enhance access to technology for traditionally under-served communities.

The application period is April 2 to July 31, 2002.

Applications and further information are available at http://www.gateway.com/olympics/donations.shtml

Opportunities for Artists

Details about these and other opportunities are available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/calls.html To submit "calls" for either artists or organizations, send email to artswire@artswire.org

Deadline April 1, 2002, WRITERS AND ARTISTS, Residency on Island in Maine- The Eastern Frontier Deadline: April 1, 2002, ARTISTS WHO ADDRESS OR ARE INSPIRED BY SENSORY OVERLOAD, DATA ARCHITECTURES OR THE FUNCTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY THAT SURROUNDS MEDIA PRODUCTION, INFO@BLAH exhibition at iKatun, Boston, MA

Deadline: April 28, 2002, Both female and male artists: "HOW HAS THE LEGACY OF '70S FEMINISM INFLUENCED A NEW GENERATION OF WOMEN ARTISTS?" Exhibition REGARDING GLORIA, White Columns, New York

Deadline June 1, 2002, SHORT FICTION OF 1010 WORDS, 1010 FICTION, Word Smitten

Details about these and other jobs are available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/jobs.html

To submit jobs to Arts Wire, email them to joblist@artswire.org Please send a text file in the body of the message. (ie no attachments and no HTML) There is no fee for posting job listings. The deadline is Friday for the next week's listings. (which usually are posted on Monday) For the most part, job listings are not edited. The contents of the postings are the responsibility of the originating agency.

PRESIDENT/CEO, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, (Rockport, ME)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Bellingham Festival of Music, (Bellingham, WA)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, (visual arts center) (Peoria, IL)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Arts Council of Beaufort County (non-profit) (Beaufort, SC)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, The New York Foundation for Architecture, (New York City, NY)

TEACHING ARTISTS FOR RESIDENCY PROGRAMS, NJPAC, (Newark, NJ)

PROGRAM MANAGER, Worldstudio Foundation, (New York City, NY)

MANAGING DIRECTOR, Geva Theatre, (Rochester, NY)

MANAGING DIRECTOR, Monte/Brown Dance, (New York, NY)

MANAGING DIRECTOR, The World Children's Choir, (McLean, VA)

EDITOR/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, (publisher of visual books) (New York City, NY)

EDITOR AND WRITER - part-time, LatinArt.com, (Los Angeles, CA)

MUSIC DIRECTOR, Musical Theatre Southwest, (Albuquerque, NM)

REGISTRAR, The Washington University Gallery, (St. Louis, MO)

GALLERY COORDINATOR, Castle Gallery, The College of New Rochelle, (New Rochelle, NY)

MUSEUM EDUCATOR, The Studio Museum In Harlem, (New York, NY)

ARTS-IN-EDUCATION ASSOCIATE, At The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University, (St. Bonaventure, NY)

GALLERY EDUCATORS, MUSEUM DOCENTS, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, (New York City, NY)

BOOK SALES ASSISTANT MANGER, (contemporary art museum bookshop) (New York City, NY)

VISITOR SERVICES STAFF, Brooklyn Museum of Art, (Brooklyn, NY)

VISITOR SERVICES FLOOR CAPTAIN, Brooklyn Museum of Art, (Brooklyn, NY)

VISUAL ARTS SPECIALIST, New Settlement After-School at PS 64X (South Bronx, NY)

PRODUCTION CREW/TECHNICIANS, The Little Orchestra Society, (New York City, NY)

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT - THEATRE MANAGER; HOUSE MANAGER, William Rainey Harper College, (Palatine, IL)

DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING ASSOCIATE, The American Music Center, (New York City, NY)

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR / DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, Ace Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, (Los Angeles, CA)

RESEARCH ASSISTANT, Ace Gallery Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, (Los Angeles, CA)

CURATORIAL ASSISTANT, Ace Gallery Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, (Los Angeles, CA)

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT, The Geffen Playhouse, (Los Angeles, CA)

ASSISTANT CONTROLLER, FINANCE DEPARTMENT, Brooklyn Academy of Music, (Brooklyn, NY)

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, School of Visual Arts, (New York City, NY)

GRANT WRITER, Film Forum, (New York City, NY)

MARKETING ASSISTANT, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, (Chicago, IL)

ARTIST/FAUX PAINTER, (Washington DC/Northern VA)

DRUMMERS, DANCERS, Nankama International Dance And Drum Co, (New York area)

ADVERTISING SALES REP, Contemporary Magazine, (New York City, NY)

EDUCATION DIVISION INTERNSHIPS - relisted with changed info, Brooklyn Museum of Art, (Brooklyn NY)

INTERNSHIP, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, (New York, NY)

INTERNSHIP, Insignia Films, (New York City, NY)

A growing list of links to job resources for artists and arts administrators is available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/jobres.html

At BOOKEXPO AMERICA this May, 8 months after September 11 in a panel co-sponsored by the Association of American Publishers, (ABFFE) and the Freedom to Read Foundation, filmmaker and author Michael Moore, writer Barbara Kingsolver, and journalist Nat Hentoff will assess the state of free speech in the United States.

Michael Moore is the author of STUPID WHITE MEN, a book whose release was held up following the September attacks because of its strong criticism of President Bush.

Nat Henoff's recent articles in the VILLAGE VOICE include "Miseducating the Young on Freedom; The Patriotism Enforcers"; "Big John Wants Your Reading List - Has the Attorney General Been Reading Franz Kafka"; "Eying What you Read - FBI in Libraries and Bookstores"; "The War on the Bill of Rights"; and "Abandoning the Constitution to Military Tribunals."

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine books and a recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2000. After an editorial in the WASHINGTON POST, she was strongly criticized by the right wing press. In the article, she invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt's four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, freedom from want. She observed that faith and speech are suffering as many US citizens are intimidated for thier appearance or beliefs, writing that: "Any spoken suggestions about alternatives to violent retaliation are likely to be called an affront against our country. I struggle to find some logical path that could lead to this conclusion, that free speech is un-American, and find as its only source our president's statement: 'Either you're with us, or you are with the terrorists.' He was addressing nations of the world, but that 'us' keeps getting narrower. If FDR's words were published anonymously today, especially those about force leading only to a 'dictator's peace,' FDR would get hate mail."

The panel will be held on Friday, May 3, at 11 a.m. in Room 1E12 of the Javits Convention Center. For more information, visit http://www.abffe.org/update3-02.html

Resources:

Kera Bolonik
"Marian and me When Michael Moore's publisher insisted he rewrite his new book to be less critical of President Bush, it took an outraged librarian to get it back in the stores"
SALON -- http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/01/07/moore/ Jan. 7, 2002

"The Attack on Civil Liberties"
THE VILLAGE VOICE -- http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/civil_liberties/
Village Voice articles on post 911 civil liberities issues are indexed on this page

Barbara Kingsolver
"Reflections On Wartime"
WASHINGTON POST -- http://www.washingtonpost.com
November 23, 2001