SOURCE: Milroy, Sarah. “We Need Artists to Soldier On.” World Press Review 48, no. 12 (December 2001): 30-2.

In the following essay, Milroy stresses the significant role that artists play in bearing witness to such events as the September 11 attacks.

Several weeks ago, I was interviewing the American artist Elaine Reichek, who was visiting Toronto to prepare for an exhibition here. In those early days after Sept. 11, we were talking about the sense of profanity one felt in working, and the sickening sense one had in the pit of one's stomach about picking up and carrying on with the business of life after others have endured so much suffering. More particularly, though, Reichek wanted to talk about the predicament of the artist at such a moment. “These are the hardest kinds of days to be an artist,” she said—a calling that is by definition ruminative and at a remove from...