On September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was destroyed, LMCC lost a home, a performance venue, studio and exhibition spaces, and nearly 30 years of archives. Most significantly, we lost an artist-in-residence, Michael Richards, who perished alongside thousands of others.

 

In the years following, we focused on arts-driven resiliency and cultural revitalization in the Financial District. Funds provided support for emerging visual artists from the Caribbean and of Caribbean descent, and the Gulf Coast Residency offered a temporary residency in Lower Manhattan for 15 artists displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In 2004, LMCC was awarded a five million dollar grant from the September 11th Fund in order to restore and sustain the activities of Lower Manhattan’s cultural community. Over the next three years, we distributed those funds to small and mid-sized cultural organizations and activities in Chinatown and below Canal Street through our Downtown Culture Grants Initiative.

 

We also launched Workspace, a nine-month residency program that provides emerging artists with free studio space and professional development, and began the Paris Residency.  This partnership between LMCC and the Mayor’s Office of the City of Paris provides a New York City artist with the opportunity to live and create at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for six months.

 

During these years, LMCC continued re-grant the highest amount of city and state arts funds to artists and organizations in Manhattan through our Manhattan Arts Grants. In 2002, we also became a founder of the River To River Festival, the largest free arts festival celebrating artistic diversity and site-specific performances in Lower Manhattan that continues today.

 

Perhaps the most significant and visible growth was our creation of The Arts Center at Governors Island, which established yearly artist residencies and summer public programming in Building 110 on Governors Island.