ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of time, the arts have always been indispensable voices for both protest and solace of trauma. In every era artists – be they poets, dancers, musicians, sculptors, painters, cartoonists, lmmakers – have crafted, in various forms or media, their responses to tragic events. At the time of this writing, terrorist attacks are rampant all over the world. In explicit detail, television, newspapers, and social media report breaking news of disasters man-made and natural. Here in Boston, we endured the marathon bombing, following the trauma connected to the national 9/ 11 event. (Two of the hijacked ights that slammed into the World Trade Center towers originated in Boston.)

In responses to such events, and as a way to help people cope with what happened, spontaneously conceived art forms were offered to the public. For example, outside their ofces in downtown Boston, architects placed wooden blocks, colored markers, and other art supplies on the sidewalk inviting passersby to help design and construct the block sculpture memorial evolving in the building’s lobby (Figure 11.1).