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About The 9/11 Arts Project

In light of recent news and the upcoming 10-year anniversary, conversation about the impact and aftermath of 9/11 is ubiquitous. The 9/11 Arts Project is positioned to provide local forums for extending the dialogue, sparking community engagement, and inspiring creative expression. Our mission is to use the arts to connect our diverse community and to catalyze a citywide healing discourse. 

Initiated by Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, a DC nonprofit arts, health, and education organization, this citywide project will kick off a “year of healing,” with multi-venue and multi-genre events to take place around the anniversary and throughout the year (9/11/2011-9/11/2012).

The 9/11 Arts Project welcomes events and programs that span creative genres including dance and literary performances, art exhibitions, facilitated dialogues, concerts, theater, interfaith services, film screenings, etc. Project events will be promoted as part of a united dialogue around this momentous anniversary and will focus on such themes as social justice, multiculturalism, religious tolerance, art activism, individual healing, national trauma, and community engagement. 

As we approach the anniversary and continue to search for new ways of healing, we must explore greater avenues for connection and understanding. And, it is through the arts that we can spark important dialogues with communities and individuals. We believe the arts have the profound ability to unite, uplift, teach, and transform.  So, we invite art spaces, social activist groups, non-profits, community centers, theaters, artist collectives, and interfaith leaders to join us in our efforts and contribute in their own way to a citywide discussion. Go to add an event to learn more about how to join us as a Project Partner and to add an event to the calendar. 

To better connect artists with curators and available venues, we are currently hosting a call for art! If you are interested, please submit your work to our Art Bank by August 1st.  

The truth is, that in the face of destruction, we are impelled to create. Upheaval begets both crises and opportunity. Shiva dances to create as well as destroy. It’s a survival impulse that I am not sure we have any control over. In the face of the unfathomable, the senseless, the cruel, the devastating, we roll up our sleeves and get down to the business of making meaning. – William Cleveland, Art an Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines

Rolling Up Our Sleeves

In the Spring of 2010, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts convened an Advisory Committee of artists, curators, psychotherapists, social justice activists, arts leaders, trauma experts, and medical researchers to develop and oversee The 9/11 Arts Project. 

We are extremely grateful for the expertise, insight and energy our Advisory Committee members have brought to the project throughout its development.

The 9/11 Arts Project’s Mission is to create opportunities for unity and healing through the transformative power of the arts.

Advisory Committee

Co-Chairs:

  • Shanti Norris, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts
  • Brooke Seidelmann, Gallery Director of The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Center

Project Staff

*Special thanks to Todd Kiraly and Stephanie West of West Associates for print design, and Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. of Fettmann, Tolchin & Majors, PC for his generously donated legal assistance.

Contact

General Project & Partner Inquiries: 

Donations & Sponsorship Opportunities:

Special Thanks To...

Jennifer Grinnell of 

Philippa Hughes of