Freedom Mall
Yesterday, New York Governor George Pataki evicted the proposed International Freedom Center museum from the World Trade Center site, basically killing the plan for what would have been a shared Drawing Center/Freedom Center entity overlooking the memorial footprints. But it appears the Snohetta-designed building might become an extension of the underground memorial museum, adding approximately 40,000 s.f. to it's already 110,000 s.f. But that number is small beans compared to the 300,000 s.f. of additional retail spacee proposed just one day after the eviction, to be located along the popular Church Street thoroughfare overlooking the site. This number extends the 200,000 s.f. of retail space included in the PATH terminal.
Proposed Freedom Center
What irks me is the whole basis for the eviction:
Proposed Freedom Center
What irks me is the whole basis for the eviction:
After critics expressed concern this summer that there would be anti-American exhibitions and programs in the cultural building, Governor Pataki demanded an "absolute guarantee" that neither institution would do anything "to denigrate America."The Drawing Center did not respond, but the Freedom Center caved, though it sounds like the Governor had already made up his mind. So, what was to be a "Freedom" center apparently could not be a forum for "free speech". Instead, people will have 300,000 more options for where to spend their "freedom dollars".
I don't want ot say that. But I hope that after the build this Freedom mall, a group of people will bomb it again.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame. Those people should be removed from a governement position, and replaced with really knowledgable and talented people, like it was intended once.
Hmm... that last comment's a tough act to follow.
ReplyDeleteI like the title of your post. Pretty ironic, huh? Every cultural aspect was removed from the project because of complaints from 9/11 families and other "public controversy," but no site in God's Country is too sacred or unfit for retail space.
What next?
ReplyDeletei saw the towers fall. i am a successfull, professional artist... i'm sure it's easy for you to talk about freedom and what artwork belongs where but i would hate to see anti american sentiment, no matter how artful, placed alongside the mass grave that ground zero represents.
ReplyDeletehow about a museum full of anti radical islamist artwork? if we have artwork depicting the bombers as 'freedom fighters' why not have other art showing them in other roles?
you hope it gets bombed again? i hope someone bombs your home, or maybe murders your loved ones. maybe you experience such a severe loss in the future. idiots.
Ok, let's be nice, now. We may feel strongly one way or another about the appropriateness of certain types of art at a place that is seen as sacred, but that's nor reason to wish harm against one another, anon1 and anon2.
ReplyDeleteBut freedom of speech needs to be part of a discussion about what's appropriate, if anything because it's one of the qualities of the US that makes it what it is. What's more American than the freedom to express how we feel, what we think, etc? We're doing it right here, in this case it says more about who you are than the other person, even if you won't reveal your identity at any level.
By restricting what can be displayed at the WTC museum, freedom of speech is violated (and in this case it says more about the government than the artists, critics, curators). Why not trust the curators to decide what's appropriate? And if something is seen as un-American, why not have people express their dislike of that, by picketing, or boycotting, or whatever? That's what happened at the Art Institute of Chicago when a student artwork used the American flag in a less-than-derirable manner. The museum decided to display it and people protested. It probably affected the museum negatively, but that's life. They made a decision and had to live with it.
For me, it boils down to what's more important: the terrorists "winning" by influencing people to create Anti-American art, or them winning by making the gov't squash the first Amendment? To me, we can't let the latter happen, even if it means they're some art we don't agree with.
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT I AM FROM THE BEGINING OF THE TWINS AND I AM VERY PROUD TO BE A 2ND GENERATION OF A ITALIAN DECENT. I LOVE THE USA AND ALL IT STANDS FOR. AND YES JUST LIKE MOST PEOPLE FROM NYC I LOST A GRAT DEAL THAT DAY I LOST A GRANDPARENT,MOM, DAD, UNCLE, AUNT , NIECE,NEPHEW, FRIEND & LOVER I WILL NOT LET ANY ONE STAND IN MY WAY OF STANDING UP FOR WHAT WE ALL BELIEVE AS AMERICANS AND WILL NOT LET MY DREAMS FALL TO PEOPLE OF NO RESPECT, FOR WHAT OUR COUNTRY BELIEVES IN GOD BLESS THE USA AND ALL WHO SERVE NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE GOD SPEED THANK YOU !
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