Artist Thomas Mann created this piece using metal.
Glass artist Alex Brand’s contribution is titled “Phoenix Rising.”

As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the terrorist strikes on Sept. 11, 2001, many people are wondering how the day will be memorialized. Most likely, there will be public gatherings and moments of silence and reflection around the country.

On Sept. 12, Crafts America and the American Craft Museum in New York City will unveil “September 11: Artists Respond,” an exhibit of commemorative works by 68 American artisans.

Crafts America, producer of the West Chester and Washington Craft Shows, initiated the project in 2001 by inviting artists to contribute to a singular work of art capturing their personal viewpoints on the catastrophic shared experience.

Each artist was directed to create a 6x6x2-inch piece utilizing any media. The result, according to Betsy Kubie, president of Crafts America, is “a gift to all the people whose lives were disastrously altered by these events.”

Kubie approached the Museum with her idea, and recognizing the unique role that art and crafts could play in the healing process, Museum curator David McFadden got behind the project. “For the American Craft Museum, the exhibition is a way to commemorate the memory of those who died, and also the spirit of unity that brought our nation together,” remarks McFadden. “The works are also testaments to the ability of art to communicate profoundly and uniquely human values.”

For Illinois-based metal artist Aaron Macsai, the opportunity presented by Crafts America was not only a way to commemorate the tragedy, but also a way to interpret terrorism’s many forms, including the Nazi Holocaust.

Macsai’s wall piece, “Remember to Love,” combines a handmade gold and silver airplane, a Red Cross card, a toy soldier, a Jewish prayer of mourning silk-screened on silk, and teeth belonging to his father, a Holocaust survivor.

Macsai writes of his piece, “The teeth are my father’s … The Nazis did not get these … They belong in this memorial to serve as a reminder of the many forms terrorism can take.”

Rod Porco, a Colorado craftsperson who works primarily with salvaged materials, created “In the Violence of a Summer’s Dream,” a soot-blackened box on which are nailed a recycled clock face with the numbers 9 and 11 partially revealed, a hammered copper dish in which Porco shot bullet holes, postage stamps, airline tickets and pieces of maps from New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Rod Porco’s work, “In the Violence of a Summer’s Dream,” was created with recycled materials.

Alex Brand, a New York-based glass artist created a piece called “Phoenix Rising.” Brand piled multi-colored, broken glass hearts at the bottom of an enclosed box to represent the various skin tones of the people of the world. Rising from the pile is an intact, white heart that Brand says represents hope. Etched on the front window of the box is, “Does the whole world have to be crying with us to see we are one?”

“September 11: Artists Respond” will run through Jan. 5, 2003, at the American Craft Museum before traveling to other museums across the country.

“We hope that our audiences are moved by these powerful images,” says Mc Fadden, “but also reminded that art is vital to our shared humanity.”