Planned WTC Performing Arts Center Struggles to Break Ground

NEW YORK—Plans for a performing arts center at the World Trade Center have fallen into disarray, the Associated Press reports. Three out of the four arts institutions chosen to be represented at the site have pulled out, and the land for the center, now occupied by the entrance to a $2 billion temporary transit hub, will not be available until at least 2011.

In 2004, architect Daniel Libeskind announced the addition of an arts center at Ground Zero, which prompted over 100 arts institutions to apply for space. The Joyce Theater and Signature Theatre dance companies, the Drawing Center, and the International Freedom Center were chosen, but today only the Joyce remains. The Drawing Center pulled out after survivors of the September 11 attacks and members of other advocate groups criticized some of the works on display at the center; the International Freedom Center was moved after some families of victims waged a campaign against its presence, saying they feared programs at the center would include controversial political interpretations of the terrorist attack; and the Signature Theatre left after city and state officials said it would be too expensive to build separate theaters for both them and the Joyce.

Last month the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Avi Schick, suggested moving the arts center off the WTC site to a space on top of a Fulton Street subway hub. The MTA has said it is still considering options for the Fulton Street hub and doesn't yet have an opinion on the arts center.