Freedom Center Controversy at Ground Zero

If not the Freedom Tower, or the WTC Memorial, there always seems to be something wrong with Ground Zero rebuliding, and the latest part of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's plan at the World Trade Center to be mired in controversy is the International Freedom Center. The IFC was originally supposed to be a place where people would learn about tolerance and diversity (though steering clear of September 11 events, because that would be displayed elsewhere), but then various parties got upset when it was revealed that the IFC would have exhibits on "man's inhumanity to man". Lately, Senator Hillary Clinton has spoken out against the center, which might mark the first time the Post and the junior Senator have something they can agree about. What's most dispriting is the haphazard way organizations or planned spaces at the WTC have occured, generating such vitriol and confusion on the part of the public.

greg.org on the controversy. And this whole kerfuffle reminds us of the South Park episode, the Death Camp of Intolerance (script, downloads).

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By Jen Chung in News on September 26, 2005 7:46 AM

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bklynd

As someone, somewhere was pointing out, the flap over the freedom center is ignoring the fact that there is also retail space planned at ground zero. As if browsing for a new pair of slacks on "sacred ground" is somehow more acceptable than a museum that possibly might say something you don't like.

pugsley

Good riddance to the freedom center. I hope this also means the drawing center is also getting the boot. The whole thing was ill conceived. Even the plans show people walking around a giant room looking at a some jumbo photographs of people having a bad day. The Joyce Dance Theater is a valid arts org so I can understand giving them space. Dance is abstract skill-intensive enough to keep out political opportunists.

family

No no no, lower manhattan can be for nothing now except remembering 2000+ charred corpses. Now if you want to hang photos of that we are open to that. We would also be open to installing a missle launcher that is aimed at Iran.

Troy Torrison

How about The Museum of The City of New York and The New York Historical Society taking over this huge museum space? They're both great, but hugely under-attended museums. They'd both love the new, sleek space overlooking ground zero. And they'd be wonderful there. Downtown is where most of the 'history' of New York has happened. Good and bad.

Isn't history what this site should be about? I mean, Freedom is nice and all, but if you let artists express their freedom anywhere they're bound to make people very upset. They're confronters. Court jesters. Can't draw? Can't paint? Not a problem. As long as you can talk a good game and come up with something "controversial" (and write a good grant proposal) you're a working artist. Our art schools are full of these folks. They know how to play the modern art game. You don't find many accomplished painters of heroic firemen. And don't hold your breath waiting for one to come along. But let's face it, as far as art goes, that's what the families of the dead, of the injured want to see. It's all the mayor wants to see. It's what the tourists want to see.

So why not put the Freedom Center--with its inevitable, "confrontational" portraits of heroic-looking hijackers--elsewhere? Why not put it where the Guggenheim wanted to build its downtown monstrosity? The soon-to-be-vacated Fulton Fish Market is a fine place to show "confrontational" art, is it not?

Tim N.

Thank you, Governor Pataki, for bravely defending us from art and artists!

If the IFC goes through, then the artists win.

Of course, the terrorists have already won.

iraq

Wasn't the Iraq invasion something else they agreed about?

S.D.

Greg.org's write up is the most reasoned one I've read yet.

Pundits on either side of the divide make it seem like it's the most Political issue there. I don’t have a problem with the International Freedom Center per se, I just think it's Off topic for the site. It seems that it was planned there mainly to act as a springboard for one politician or another.