David Stern’s "The Gatherings" Donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum

Artist David Stern’s diptych paintings, "The Gatherings," have been generously donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and will be hung outside the Museum’s pavilion auditorium. “The Gatherings” portray the human connectedness and spontaneous community-making that occurred in New York City after the terrorist attacks of September 11.

German born Stern found himself unable to continue working in the weeks and months after the attacks. In a devastated city, he walked around in the immediate area of his studio, just a few blocks north from Ground Zero and witnessed the many communal gatherings around makeshift memorials. Inspired by what he saw, Stern created "The Gatherings" in 2002 as his own artistic response to the events of 9/11.

"I called them ‘The Gatherings,’ and they have to do with us, confronted with the enormity, not only of the attack and the loss of live, but the irrevocable change which just had our entire society thrown back into a medieval culture war of tremendous dimensions," said Stern. Listen to Stern speak more about "The Gatherings."

The paintings were exhibited in a nationally traveling exhibition of sixty works, "David Stern: The American Years (1995-2007)" and published in its accompanying catalog.

"We were proud to acquire ‘The Gatherings,’" said 9/11 Memorial Museum Chief Curator Jan Seidler Ramierez. "Their inaugural display in the Museum’s pavilion will complement, in a very meaningful way, the experience of spontaneous gathering and reflection marking the threshold of Part 3 of the historical exhibit at bedrock."

"The Gatherings" will be on display when the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens on May 21. Go to 911memorial.org to plan your visit.

By Margaret Barng, 9/11 Memorial Deputy Communications Manager