East Village resident Drunell Levinson…announced the September 11 Quilts Memorial project on a website she created especially for that purpose. Calling on volunteers to submit 3’x 6’ or 3’x 3’ quilt panels, she left the choice of materials and the interpretation to the individual artists. Levinson separated her work into two parallel activities: The first was to raise awareness of the project, solicit volunteers and organize public exhibitions; the second was to make a documentary of the participants’ experiences of the September 11th 2001 event, and to explore how these experiences motivated them to create art. By September 10, 2002, the project consisted of 94 unique quilts accompanied by artists’ statements, photographs, memorabilia, emails, and a dedicated website.
Over the next two years, the quilts were displayed as an ensemble in fourteen exhibitions across the United States, as well as in a special presentation in Japan. In addition, Levinson created a 20-minute documentary video entitled “September 11 Quilts: Mending a Diverse Community of Artists.” The September 11 Memorial Exhibition quilts, supporting materials, and documentary were officially donated to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, forming an important addition to the Museum’s growing collection of art made in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
https://www.911memorial.org/tribute/the-september-11-quilt-project
Photographs are from “September 11 Quilts”
See more at https://www.september11quilts.org/index.html
