Drawing Meaning: Trauma and Children’s Art After 9/11
Drawing Meaning: Trauma and Children’s Art After 9/11 examines how young artists from around the world used art to heal themselves and others as they expressed complex thoughts and feelings about the attacks.
Skyline of Heroes
Mural
Multiple artists
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of NYU Child Study Center
About the Exhibition
As children processed the events of 9/11, parents, teachers, therapists, and support professionals encouraged them to express their feelings through art. Whether they were high school students or children just old enough to fingerpaint, they created art that channeled their sadness, confusion, fear, and hope. Some works thanked first responders, others were one step in the healing journey of those whose loved ones were killed in the attacks. This exhibition gives visitors a glimpse into the minds of children after the attack and showcase the creative works born of their experiences.
Objects on View
This exhibition highlights the 9/11 Memorial and Museum’s collection of children’s art. The artists hailed from around the world, some as far from the attack sites as Japan or France. Others were more local, coming from bereaved families and communities intimately familiar with the fallout of that day. The artworks in this exhibition encompass the wide range of emotional responses that children had in the wake of the attacks. They expressed the fear, sadness, and anxiety that so many adults experienced after 9/11. But their pieces also show the hope and inspiration that they took from witnessing acts of charity and generosity in the aftermath.
Untitled
Drawing
Claire, age 17
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of NYU Child Study Center
Left: Untitled
Quilt
Multiple artists
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of Shelley Hoberman on behalf of the teachers, staff, parents and students of P.S. 40, Manhattan
Right: More than Ever
Drawing
Abbey, age 10
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of NYU Child Study Center
Join Us for an Upcoming Public Program
Through Their Eyes: Therapeutic Art for Grieving Children
Thursday, March 6, 2025, 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. ET
Following the 9/11 attacks, young people around the world created art in response to the violence they had witnessed. This program will explore the role of art-making and art therapy to process grief and trauma.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, MA-255848-OMS-24.
