Time To Consider: The Arts Respond to 9.11

Creative Time is a non-profit arts organization with a 30-year history of presenting public arts projects of all disciplines, through both grassroots activism and highly prominent venues. From the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, Grand Central Terminal, and Times Square to milk cartons, billboards, and skywriting over New York City, Creative Time has a long and distinguished history of commissioning and presenting art that enhances the public realm, inspires and provokes discussion of socially relevant topics such as domestic violence, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, genetic engineering, and, now, the recuperation of New York City in the face of terrorism.
Poets & Writers, Inc. is the nation's largest literary service organization. P&W fosters the professional development of writers and helps create an environment in which literature can be appreciated by the widest possible public. Since it's founding in 1970, P&W has focused on the source of literature, providing information, support, and guidance to writers at all stages in their careers. P&W accomplishes this by publishing Poets & Writers Magazine, offering how-to-publish seminars, supporting writers who are participating in public literary events, and introducing emerging writers outside of New York to the New York City literary community. As a co-founder of the Literary Network, Poets & Writers continues to champion the cause of freedom of expression and advocates on behalf of writers for public funding of literature and the arts.

The Van Alen Institute is committed to improving the design of the public realm. Its program of Projects in Public Architecture promotes education and action through design studies, design competitions, public forums, web sites, and publications, including the Van Alen Report. Based in New York, and named for benefactor William Van Alen, designer of the city's 1930 landmark Chrysler Building, the Institute structures its projects to engage an interdisciplinary and international array of practitioners, policy-makers, students, educators, and community leaders. The Institutes projects challenge the design disciplines to address real world issues for the future of New York and cities at large, bringing together thousands of emerging and established designers across the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and environmental design to contribute ideas and concrete proposals for sites including Governers Island (1996), East River (1998), Pier 40 (1998), TKTS Booth for Times Square (2000) and Queens Plaza (2001).

Worldstudio Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to using creativity as a positive force for social change. Its mission is to develop and implement programs that encourage social responsibility and diversity within the fine and applied arts industries through education, activism, and improved professional practices. The Foundation pursues this mission by engaging the members of the creative community in mentoring and scholarship programs for disadvantaged young artists and producing publications that increase awareness of social, cultural, and environmental issues and the role that creativity can play in addressing them.

Deutsche Bank considers cultural commitment as part of its business and social responsibility. This commitment is reflected foremost in the bank's "Art at Work" program. Since 1978 and continuing to this day, art by significant contemporary artists is integrated into the work environment of the bank. The goal of the art program is to offer the bank's employees and visitors exposure to the art of our time and to help promote international cultural exchange. Included in the collection are representative examples from some of the most important movements in postwar art: Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Post-Modernist and Conceptual Art. The New York collection features works on paper, including drawings, collages, prints, and photographs. Located on the main floor at 31 West 52nd Street, and featuring seven shows annually, the Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery was created to further support and to encourage understanding of the arts.

Other cultural organizations 9.11-related initiatives:

Downtown Alliance
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
New York New Visions