After support from former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum decided to reschedule the annual Tribute in Light that it had announced Thursday was cancelled due to COVID-19. This will commemorate the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“For the last eight years the 9/11 Memorial & Museum has produced the Tribute in Light and we recognize the profound meaning it has for so many New Yorkers,” said Memorial & Museum President and CEO Alice M. Greenwald.
“I want to particularly thank Mike Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. for their assistance in offsetting the increased costs associated with the health and safety considerations around the tribute this year and the technical support of so many that will enable the tribute to be a continuing source of comfort to families and an inspiration to the world going forward.”
“This year it is especially important that we all appreciate and commemorate 9/11, the lives lost, and the heroism displayed as New Yorkers are once again called upon to face a common enemy. I understand the Museum’s concern for health and safety, and appreciate their reconsideration. The state will provide health personnel to supervise to make sure the event is held safely while at the same time properly honoring 9/11,” said Cuomo.
About the Tribute
Tribute in Light is a commemorative public art installation first presented six months after 9/11 and then every year thereafter, from dusk to dawn, on the night of September 11. It has become an iconic symbol that both honors those killed and celebrates the unbreakable spirit of New York.
Assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage south of the 9/11 Memorial, the twin beams reach up to four miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon lightbulbs positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers. The installation can also be viewed from a 60-mile radius around lower Manhattan.
