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22 years.
That sounds like a long time. And yet, for anyone who was in Manhattan that day, it’s as if it was yesterday. I, along with countless others, have my story from 9/11. I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan but worked down near Wall Street and my subway stop was the World Trade Center. I have very palpable feelings about that day.
VERY palpable feelings.
But that’s not what this musing is about.
It’s about the big, beautiful box of rebirth that is about to open its doors on September 15th: the Perelman Performing Arts Center (or PAC, as it will affectionately be tagged). It was recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning and Michael Bloomberg, who donated $130 million of his own money, was interviewed about the rebirth and growth of the downtown World Trade Center area and the significance of the PAC itself.
Bloomberg was passionate about providing a place for people to mourn and reflect, for sure, but he felt it equally important to have a space for survivors to celebrate life and look forward. He said that he was sure that those who perished on 9/11 would have wanted their loved ones to live their lives to the fullest, even whilst remembering the pain of that fateful day. Enter the PAC: “a dynamic new cultural organization bringing together audiences and artists in flexible performance spaces with wide-ranging programming that will enthrall, awe, and entertain.” If anything was meant to enthrall, awe, and entertain, it’s New York City.
This new space, at its core, is all about the healing power of the arts. It towers at 129,000 square feet and basks a golden hue upon the World Trade Center reflecting pools. It’s as if each reflects the other. One monument is sunken and deep and reflects backward in time, and one is grand and shimmering and points upward toward the sky, toward the hope of tomorrow. They complement one another. They work in concert. Together they capture the whole of the human spirit.
And that’s exactly what the arts do. The arts are critical and necessary. There is art in EVERYTHING. There is art in business, in negotiation and presentation. Art and math have a symbiotic relationship. All music is based on math; one can’t exist without the other. There is art in all areas of marketing and advertising. Even the foundation of social media is rooted in some form of art.
Art makes us feel and heal. Art allows us to communicate. (I’m doing it right now through the art of writing!) Art is the thing we look to for a respite. It’s how we give ourselves permission to take a break from life and pause. It allows us to just take a moment to breathe.
So, the next time you feel yourself reeling from the stressors of the everyday, take a moment to remember how lucky you are just to be here. There are thousands of people who can’t say the same because of one fateful day in our history 22 years ago. I know how lucky I am to be here and to be writing this. And I intend to continue to share my art with others for as long as I am moved to do so.
Picasso said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." To that I say, “May your soul be spotless and may you find an abundance of art in everyday life.”
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