Culture Groups Named for WTC Site by Etta Sanders Dancing, drawing and drama will all be part of the rebuilt World Trade Center site. The Signature Theater Company, the Joyce International Dance Center and the Drawing Center, won out over more than 110 applicants. A Freedom Center, to be created specifically for the site, was also selected. The announcement was made June 10 at a ceremony at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, across the street from the site. The theaters will be housed in a performing arts center at the corner of Vesey and Greenwich Streets adjacent to the Freedom Tower. The Drawing Center and Freedom Center will occupy a second cultural building at the northeast corner of a newly extended Fulton and Greenwich Streets adjacent to the memorial site. "The theater and the arts in general are really what's missing from Lower Manhattan," said actor Edward Norton, a member of the Signature Theater Board of Trustees and a Downtown resident, "You should be able t o walk to the theater in Lower Manhattan." The proposed plan is for the Signature Theater to operate a complex of three theaters, ranging in size from 100 to 500 seats, along with a café and bookstore. The 14-year-old theater, currently located on West 42nd Street, produces plays by one playwright each season. The new complex will expand that programming to include work by new playwrights and as well as community uses and as a possible venue for the Tribeca Film festival. The Joyce, which will continue to run its theaters in Chelsea and Soho, is expected to present performances by dance companies from around the world in a new 900-1,000-seat theater. The Drawing Center will replace its 27-year home on Wooster Street, with six galleries, plus educational facilities. The Freedom Center, founded by Tom Bernstein, president of Chelsea Piers, and filmmaker Peter Kunhardt, will present seminars and exhibits that "center around Humankind's enduring quest for freedom", according to materials provided by Bernstein. "The Freedom Center will symbolize the indomitable spirit of the people of this land, the indomitable spirit of people of other lands, of the people of this city who may have been down, but most certainly not out," said South African Nobel peace prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu at the announcement ceremony. Now that the selection has been made, many of the details, large and small, remain to be worked out. The next step will be a six-month feasibility study, to be funded by the LMDC, to assess the space and financial needs of the organizations. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation will conduct what is expected to be a $600 million fundraising campaign for the cultural facilities and the memorial. It will be at least five years before the first theater or dance performance ticket is sold. "This is an enormous effort," said James Houghton, founder of the Signature Theater, "We're just going to have to all sit down together and figure out how we're going to make it happen." The announcement, at the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center on June 10, was preceded by a brief performance that featured banging drums; swiveling hips and the rapid clacking of Savion Glover's tap shoes. "The vitality and creativity that only exciting cultural expression can provide is a central element for our vision of Lower Manhattan," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.