The gathering was prompted by a decision by Gov. George E. Pataki in September to cancel plans for an International Freedom Center at ground zero in response to worries raised by families of some 9/11 victims that the center would prove unpatriotic. Some victims' relatives asserted that a center devoted broadly to global human rights would detract from the centrality of the memorial planned there for their loved ones.

Similar arguments also killed a move to relocate the Drawing Center, now based in SoHo, to the building housing the Freedom Center. And plans to build a performing arts center at ground zero seem to have stalled.

Mike Wallace, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History at the City University Graduate Center, said it was unrealistic to think that an arts presence at the former World Trade Center site could ever be chosen by consensus. "If you come at it from subject matter, you're never going to get there," he said. He added, "Leave it open to struggle and contest, and don't give up too quickly."

Paul Goldberger, dean of Parsons the New School for Design, the moderator of the panel, pressed Tom A. Bernstein, a founder of the Freedom Center, on why he had not pressed for an alternative downtown location once Mr. Pataki made his decision.

"Why is it you chose not to stay and fight?" he asked Mr. Bernstein.

Mr. Bernstein replied that the center's purpose was inextricable from the site itself. "Central to the idea was that it was married to the spiritual memorial," he said. "The notion was born in response to 9/11."

Among the cultural figures in the audience were officials from the Drawing Center and staff members from the Signature Theater, an Off Broadway company, and the Joyce Theater, which presents dance. The Signature and Joyce have been designated to share the performing arts center at ground zero.

Given the intense emotions associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some panelists suggested that the competing visions for the 16-acre site - memorial, business hub, neighborhood gathering place - were ultimately incompatible.

Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, likened the current plan for ground zero to "downtown Hartford - a shopping mall and an office park, which don't coincide well with sacred places."

During a question-and-answer period after the panel discussion, Diane Horning, who lost her son in the Trade Center, suggested that art made in response to the terrorist attacks could be featured at the site. She cited projects like quilts, posters, chains of origami cranes and Bruce Springsteen's pop album "The Rising."

"Do not think that we hate culture, that we hate art," Ms. Horning said. "It's just that the art could be tied to what happened there."

But Mr. Bernstein said that arts organizations with an exclusive 9/11 focus would not "stand the test of time." Such a theme would also represent a retreat from the original mandate for the site, which was to pair a tribute to the dead with educational experiences for the living, he said.

"It's a much, much narrower vision - a significant departure," he said.

Underlying the evening's discussion was, nonetheless, a sense of "it ain't over yet" - that the essentials could still be revisited. Mr. Yaro said he had at one point thought that a Norman Rockwell museum might be a safe bet, but then reconsidered. "It's very difficult to think of cultural activities that aren't going to be offensive to somebody," he said.

Mr. Goldberger asked whether art at the site was therefore doomed to being purely decorative, "the equivalent of a Frank Stella painting on a glitzy office wall."

Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, suggested that the answer might be yes. "The potential for controversy is always there," she said, "when you're dealing with contemporary ideas."