News Release: 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM RECEIVES $1.6 MILLION GRANT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 31st, 2023
9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM RECEIVES $1.6 MILLION GRANT FROM THE LEON LEVY FOUNDATION FOR DIGITAL ARCHIVES
New York, NY – May 31, 2023 – The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is establishing its first-ever institution-wide digital asset management system that will incorporate both digital items in its collection and institutional archives thanks to a generous $1.6 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.
The grant will empower the Museum to further organize, preserve, and expand access to its institutional archive and permanent collection. Formed in the digital age, the collection is majority digital and consists of photographs, moving images, audio records, and oral histories. Support from the Leon Levy Foundation will help the Museum fulfill its commitment to making these primary source materials more widely available and manageable for generations to come.
“This is a transformational gift that helps ensure the lessons and legacy of 9/11 are preserved and passed along to new generations in perpetuity,” said Clifford Chanin, Executive Vice President & Director of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. “The grant secures our stewardship of the stories from victims, heroes, and the incredible rebuilding efforts that define the 9/11 narrative.”
The Leon Levy grant will expand the Museum’s reach by making assets available to a global audience, which include comparable memorial-making enterprises around the world which have sought guidance from the 9/11 Museum. The grant will also support the digitization of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition design entries and the recordings of oral histories with founding trustees of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and key members of their staffs and originating advisory boards.
The grant will further help the Museum fulfill its mission and responsibility to preserve and ensure accessibility to the volume of material and evidence, primary testimony, and historical record of responses to the terrorist attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001, and the ongoing global repercussions of these events for the public benefit.
Shelby White, founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, said, “The 9/11 Memorial & Museum chronicles a defining moment in history and gives voice to those impacted. We are pleased that the Leon Levy Foundation can help enhance access for people around the world to the archives of this vital cultural institution.”
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is thankful for the generosity and transformative support of the Leon Levy Foundation.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the nonprofit organization that oversees operations for the 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum. Located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site, the Memorial and Museum remember and honor the 2,983 people who were killed in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The Memorial plaza design consists of two reflecting pools formed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by swamp white oak trees. The Museum displays more than 900 personal and monumental objects while its collection includes more than 67,500 items that present intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery linked to the events of 9/11 and the aftermath The Museum also explores the global impact of 9/11 and its continuing significance through education programs, public programs, live talks and film features that cover contemporary topics designed for diverse audiences. For more information or to reserve a ticket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, please visit 911memorial.org.
ABOUT THE LEON LEVY FOUNDATION
The Leon Levy Foundation, founded in 2004, is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the estate of Leon Levy by his wife and Founding Trustee, Shelby White. The Foundation continues Leon Levy’s philanthropic legacy and builds on his vision, supporting the preservation, understanding and expansion of knowledge in the ancient world, Arts and Humanities, Nature and Gardens, Neuroscience, Human Rights, and Jewish Culture. To learn more, visit www.leonlevyfoundation.org.
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Garrett Levine | (954) 464-4015 | press@911memorial.org
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