Our Mission:
The Ground Zero 360 exhibition created by Dublin artist, Nicola McClean, honors the sacrifice of the victims and their families of the 9/11 terror attacks. The spectator is able to discover, through Nicola’s images, the startling aftermath of one of the most tragic events in American history – seeing what she saw, hearing the stories she heard and meeting the people she met, particularly the heroic men and women of the New York City Emergency Services.
Through harrowing visuals, heartbreaking “missing posters” and a unique panoramic installation, Ground Zero 360 invites you to step into the past and feel what eight million New Yorkers were feeling in the days that followed the terror attacks of September 11th. Visitors are also able to hear the city’s previously unreleased emergency radio calls from that morning and touch a fragment of twisted steel and broken granite from the World Trade Center. The exhibition includes: personal artifacts lent by families of police officers and firefighters who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, crosses cut from the steel by ironworkers, a flag that flew over Ground Zero, and a survivor tree cast in bronze with steel from the World Trade Center and the Freedom Tower.
After every human tragedy we hear echoes of "never forget"; Ground Zero 360 is a 501c3 organization that is committed to keeping the human toll of the 9/11 attacks in the forefront of our consciousness. 9/11 family members and first responders travel with the exhibition to educate the public who cannot visit the September 11th Museum in New York City. The photographs, paintings, sculpture, and artifacts of victims who perished in the attacks are poignant and compels visitors to think about the effects of September 11th and the worldwide reach of terrorism.
This exhibition has the support of the National 9-11 Memorial and Museum, and has the support of The 9-11 Families (911families.org).
Nicola McClean:
Artist Nicola McClean: (Executive Creative Director) [Co. Founder]
I had been living in New York for 5 years prior to the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
As a working photographer my camera went everywhere with me, that day was no different. I knew that a historical event was unfolding and I gathered up whatever film I had and raced downtown.
Nothing could have prepared me for the devastation that lay ahead, the scale of which I still struggle to comprehend.
Enroute to the business district, I witnessed people in their hundreds fleeing the city over Brooklyn bridge, they were tightly crammed together, panicked and covered in dust.
The only people heading towards the city were the first responders, they knew not what lay ahead of them, yet they sped towards the epicenter disappearing into the cloud of dense dust.
These men and women rushing into the unknown were the first of many acts of humanity and heroism that I bore witness to that day and over the coming months.
On arrival at Ground Zero I was greeted by an unearthly silence, one that was so unfamiliar to the New York I had previously known. Visibility was extremely limited and when I could get no closer, I stopped. Within the silent stillness, I could feel a deep and spiritual sense of loss on a massive scale. It was tangible.
Nearly three thousand souls perished on that dark day, the violent and sudden end to their lives was incomprehensible to me.
I took photo after photo and with each click, I made a silent promise. I vowed that I would do everything that was in my power to use the images to create a lasting narrative that would enable their story to be remembered; to never be forgotten.
I spent that day and the following weeks and months photographing my way through the rubble, twisted metal and remains of lives lost.
I witnessed the best of people facing the worst of times. Their patriotism, confidence and courage was infectious. I felt a profound sense of “being American” that has stayed with me to this day.
I felt and still feel deeply connected to and proud of a people that demonstrated such resilience and courage in the face of evil.
The Ground Zero 360 exhibition is the result of those silent promises of remembrance that I made to all of the souls lost on that dark day, over 20 years ago.
These silent promises have not only remained with me but have grown stronger with time.
Retired NYPD Inspector - Paul McCormack:
(Curator / Executive Producer) [Co.Founder]
Most fled the city in fear of their lives, but New York’s finest and bravest were not among them. On 9/11, I was commanding officer of the NYPD’s 41st precinct. Police officers see danger often, but nothing prepared us for the chaos and death of that day. I worked with other first responders to locate survivors at Ground Zero. There were few.
We in the NYPD still remember the thousands of innocent souls we couldn’t save. We will never forget the sacrifice of the rescue workers who died.
Yet one of the most uplifting moments of my career was seeing crowds lining the streets, cheering for police officers, firefighters, ironworkers, and healthcare workers reporting to work at Ground Zero.
We were all united in love of our country.
Artists:
September 2021, marked the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and the 10th Anniversary of our Ground Zero 360 exhibition.
Over the years we have met many Artists across the world who have expressed an interest in participating in our show. For the 20th Anniversary we invited over 60 of these world-renowned Artists to create a piece of work that related to their feelings about the 9/11 attacks.
This resulted in “Remembrance” Ground Zero 360, a new collaborative exhibit that opened to much acclaim in The Museum of Biblical Arts, Dallas, on September 2021.
Below is a list of the Artists who took part. Moving forward, their work will continue to be included in the show as it travels from venue to venue.
Ballagh, Robert (Dublin, Ireland) / Behan, Thomas (Dublin, Ireland) / Belvedere College (Dublin, Ireland) / Bergeron, Tiffany (Houston, Texas) / Boshier, Derek (Portsmouth, England) / Bradfield, Coleen (Bryan, Texas) / Brosk, Jeffrey (New York City) / Bush, George W. (Dallas, Texas) / Canul, Carlos (Houston,Texas) Chu, Chong-Keun (South Korea) / Chu, Hyun-Ju (South Korea) / Clark, Kirk (McAllen, Texas) / Collins, Lenore (Dublin, Ireland) / Collins, Michael Roque (Houston, Texas) / Colman, Eamon (Kilkenny, Ireland) / Dill, Laddie John (Venice, California) / Donoghue, Lola (Galway, Ireland) / Douthit, Mollie (Grand Forks, North Dakota) / Duncan, Alexander McQueen (London, England) / Edwards, Jim (San Francisco, California) / Enochs, Dale (Bloomington, Indiana) / FitzGibbons, Bill (San Antonio, Texas) / Fitzpatrick, Jim (Dublin, Ireland) / Gardner, Rachel (Houston, Texas) / Guggi (Dublin, Ireland) / Harris, Gordon (Cork, Ireland) / Hearns, Richard (Dublin,Ireland) / Hewson, Leah (Dublin, Irekand) / Hines, Barbara (Palm Beach, Florida) / Huckaby, Sedrick (Dallas, Texas) Komodore, Bill (Dallas, Texas) / Kopriva, Sharon (Houston, Texas) / Lawlor, Stephen (Dublin, Ireland) / Locke, Charmaine (Carbondale, Colorado) / MacCormaic, Paul (Dublin, Ireland) / Manes, Brenda English (Beaumont, Texas) / Manes, Paul (Beaumont, Texas) / McClean, Nicola (Dublin, Ireland) / McCormack, Brendan (Westchester, New York) / McEntire, Frank (Salt Lake City, Utah) / Monrós, David (Barcelona, Spain) / Nelson, Pamela (Dallas, Texas) Norton, David (Dublin, Ireland) / O’Donoghue, Hughie (Mayo, Ireland) / O’Neill, Geraldine (Dublin, Ireland) / O’Reilly, Geraldine (Westmeath, Ireland) O’Toole, Laurence (Wicklow, Ireland) / Owens, Sherry (Dallas, Texas) / Pink, Jamie (Dallas, Texas) / Reilly, Bennie (Dublin, Ireland) / Salomon, David (Israel) Schneider, Jeff (New York City) / Scully, Sean (New York, New York) / Sealy, Una (Dublin, Ireland) / Sites, David (Bryan, Texas) / Spencer, Andrea (Hertfordshire, England) / Stein, Linda (New York City) / Surls, James (Carbondale, Colorado) / Temming, Jo (Kansas City, Missouri) / Teskey, Donald (Limerick, Ireland) / The Edge / Tobolowsky, George (Dallas, Texas) / Villanueva, Fred (Dallas, Texas) / Wakula-Mac, Marta (Krakow, Poland) / Waranch, Simon (Dallas, Texas) / Weiss, Robert (Galveston, Texas) / Winter, Paula Post (Houston, Texas) / Yasue, Motoko (Tokyo, Japan) / Leah Hewson (Dublin, Ireland) / Sean Molloy (Dublin, Ireland) / Richard Hearns (Clare, Ireland) / Maurice Quillinan (Limerick, Ireland) / Gary Robinson (Longford, Ireland) / Nicola McClean (Dublin, Ireland) / Diane Henshaw (Fermanagh, Ireland) / Joel Stanulonis (Houston, Texas) / Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh (Wicklow, Ireland)