The Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County held its second annual “Magical Montgomery” festival in Silver Spring, on September 29, 2001 – only a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11th of that year. In response to those events, the AHC asked artist Rosana Azar to organize a Healing Mural, to which visitors could contribute their own images and words. Last year the AHC donated the mural to the Historical Society.
Physically, this is a canvas banner around 6 feet tall and over 50 feet long. Emotionally, it is a reminder of those days and weeks after the events of 9-11, when Americans and others were still processing – or trying to process – what had happened, and how it would affect us. Visitors wrote messages of love and support in English, Spanish and other languages; personalized it with hand- and footprints in paint; and drew and painted images of flags, doves, peace symbols, flowers, trees, hearts, and many others. Today, ten years later, the memories brought back by the words and images on the mural are (to me, anyway) both immediate and far away. I remember thinking that nothing would be the same… and yet now, reading some of the thoughts expressed here, I have trouble putting myself back in that place where the whole world had changed. And that, my friends, is why museums collect artifacts. Time passes, and memories fade and change despite our best intentions; sometimes we need the physical artifacts to anchor those memories and bring them back to the surface.
Well, that’s a little more philosophical than I meant to get today, before I pulled the banner out to take photos. See? Even us seasoned curators – professional rememberers – need the artifacts to bring those memories back. Feel free to comment, share your own memories, argue with me about forgetting things, whatever you like. In the meantime, here are some more images from the banner.
A Fine Collection 
September 7, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Joanna, we all (over the age of 14, anyway) remember that day. It makes me remember MCHS because that was the first day of setting up for the book sale. Bottom level of Congressional Plaza. Ellie told me because she had heard it on the radio coming in. She went back and got a radio so we could listen while we unpacked books. We all stayed and worked, and Virginia Downs’ son came to help when school was let go. Ditto her husband – perhaps left work early. It was hot, but we worked all day. I went up to get something to eat on the upper level and found all the stores closed, even CVS (still Peoples?). Cars driving around, but no stores open. My husband was in Baltimore area, so I didn’t worry about him. After arriving home I had first sight of those towers going down. Upset me so much I had to get outside, so went out and mowed the lawn! But the big thing I will remember about that day is that we were setting up for the book sale – so a memory of MCHS.
Dorothy
September 7, 2011 at 5:59 pm
My memories of the day are wrapped up in the booksale, too – we went to pick up a big book donation around lunchtime, while everyone was still trying to figure what was happening and how long it would BE happening. Kind of surreal!