No safe spaces: Notes on the National September 11 Museum

This article examines how the National September 11 Museum – and particularly its core Historical Exhibition – tells a specific narrative about 9/11 and also signals to viewers how to respond to that narrative. The museum’s design strategies are ‘read’ as an expression of one version of the September 11 narrative reflecting distinctive sensibilities and susceptibilities in post-9/11 American culture. Through a descriptive walk-through informed by the museum design team’s behind-thescenes commentary, the article explores how the museum achieves its effects and their wider implications. At every level, the museum is deeply rooted in contemporary national conversations about security. Far more than a tourist attraction, the museum is also a powerful spatial, physical reflection of the current shape of the September 11 narrative in America as well as post-9/11 America’s deepest anxieties and challenges.