At W.T.C. Site, a Temple for Contemplating Freedom

Relying on varied exhibits and multimedia presentations, the Freedom Center will foster "conversations on freedom"...

Paula Grant Berry, the widow of a Sept. 11 victim and the vice chairwoman of the Freedom Center, said the terrorist attacks would be a springboard for the center's meditations on freedom in the United States and abroad. "It will look at 9/11 in the way 9/11 affected the world," she said.

Visitors will then set off on a grand concourse, called the Freedom Walk, that winds around the building's perimeter and highlights significant moments in history through a collage of images and sounds.

The center also plans Freedom Sites evoking the cause of liberty, like a former gulag in Russia, that will be set up with other groups promoting freedom around the world.

Freedom Hot Spots will focus on places around the world where people are campaigning against human rights abuses. The Challenge Galleries will emphasize what the planners view as current or historical challenges to freedom, like India's caste system. The center plans to feature the stories of ordinary people - slaves who resisted their masters, shopkeepers who risked all to fight the Nazis - as well as more prominent figures.

The Freedom Center's creators, meanwhile, have sought to emphasize that their institution has no partisan identity. "We're filmmakers," Mr. Kunhardt said. "We're journalists who want to explore freedom in accurate and meaningful and exciting ways." He added, "We tried to be above politics as we did our research."

Mr. Bernstein said the center plans to emphasize questions rather than answers. "Our ambition is not to tell you what to think," he said. "It's to make you think."

As for the emphasis on freedom, Mr. Kunhardt said: "This is not a word to shy away from. Freedom will be a word everyone will use with great pride."

posted by Blicero : 5/19/2005 03:28:00 PM