After ten years the 9/11 Memorial is about to open (the Museum opens next year along with the bathrooms) but at the same time New York might be about to lose what is arguably the most evocative of all the September 11th memorials: The Tribute In Light. Though most people assume the giant bird magnet is a simple installation that just gets turned on each year, it actually is a huge undertaking that takes weeks to prepare—and costs a big chunk of change. Like, hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Municipal Art Society (MAS), which runs the Tribute, can no longer afford on its own.
Up until this year the Light has been able to get by with cash from all over, including the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, but most of that funding stops after this year. So now MAS is doing what it can to try and keep those 88 7,000-watt-xenon bulbs shining four miles into the sky: asking for your money. And you know what? There are far worse things you could be spending a few bucks on.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, here's a three-year-old video on how they assemble the whole thing:
