In 2001, more than 200 Queens middle school students began a project to create murals that would memorialize the 9/11 attacks and its aftermath. Now, eight years later, those murals will be on display to the public for the first time.
Marc Josloff was one of three art teachers at the George J. Ryan Middle School in Fresh Meadows that year. About three months after the September 11 attack, Josloff introduced the projects to his students, who were in grades six, seven and eight.
Josloff had created photo montages by putting together various images and scenes from that fateful day. He then gave each student a packet, which included a 1 ½ X 2 inch color photo that would be the portion of the mural they would be responsible for recreating.
Using a transparency of the images, students traced them onto white paper and then searched through magazines to find the right colors. Josloff also put together a committee of students to help coordinate the project and had student captains who tried to encourage their classmates to work diligently.
Roman Khasidov, who was an eighth grader that year and served on the mural committee, said he was excited when he first heard about the project. He described it as being cathartic and said it was a way to process everything the students were seeing on the news.
“It was good for me,” said Khasidov, who is now a senior at Tufts University. “It helped me deal with what I saw and I’m sure it was the same for everyone else.”
By about April or May of 2002, Josloff said the project was completed. The result was seven panels, each of which is about 3 1/2 feet wide and 6 feet high. Each panel represents a different aspect of the terrorist attack – the attack itself, shock, destruction, response, loss, grief and recovery.
Josloff said that the project empowered the students to deal with something so tragic, and also treated them as adults. He said it was cathartic for him as well.
“Once you got started on this there was no turning back,” Josloff said. “It had to be completed, and it had to be good.”
The 9/11 Memorial Mural is now on display to the public for the first time. When Josloff saw the last panel hung at the Freeport Memorial Library, he said he broke down crying.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Josloff said, adding that it is nice to know it will provide a graphic reminder to help people experience the 9/11 terrorist attacks from a safe distance.
Josloff said that his next job is to find a permanent site for the murals where as many people as possible will be able to see and experience it.
The 9/11 Memorial Mural will be on display through September 30 at the Freeport Memorial Library, which is located at 144 W. Merrick Road in Freeport. There will be a reception for the exhibition at the library from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 12.
“I’m just surprised. I thought they [the mural pieces] were just going to stay in the junior high, and it was just going to be an art project we all did,” Khasidov said. “It’s good to see that people haven’t forgotten because I feel that’s happening right now.”
