Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to present next University Lectures address March 8.

Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to present next University Lectures address March 8.March 01, 2005Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Maya Lin was thrust onto the national scene when, as a senior at Yale University, her entry in a national competition for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected as the winning design. As the next University Lectures speaker at Syracuse University, Lin will discuss her career in art and architecture and the inspiration that drives her. The lecture, scheduled for March 8 at 4:30 p.m., in Hendricks Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Born in 1959 in Athens, Ohio, Lin was trained as an artist and architect, and her sculptures, parks, monuments and architectural projects are linked by her ideal of making a place for individuals within the landscape.

Lin draws inspiration for her sculpture and architecture from culturally diverse sources, including Japanese gardens, Hopewell Indian earthen mounds and the work of American earthworks artists of the 1960s and 1970s. Her most well-known work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, allows the names of those lost in combat to speak for themselves, connecting a tragedy that happened on foreign soil with the soil of America’s capital city.

Her work has won numerous awards and a documentary about her work, “Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision”, won an Academy Award in 1996. Her artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States. Lin lives in New York and Colorado.

The University Lectures is a cross-disciplinary lecture series that brings to the University individuals of exceptional accomplishment in the areas of architecture and design; the humanities and the sciences; and public policy, management and communications. The series is supported by the generosity of the University’s Trustees, alumni and friends. The next University Lectures speaker will be television journalist Bill Moyers, on March 22. More information on the upcoming University Lectures speakers can be found at http://provost.syr.edu/lectures/current.asp.