Maya Lin

Maya Lin is an environmental artist. She interprets the natural world through science, history, and culture to create works that have had a profound impact on how we view our history and how we relate to the natural world. From her very first work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she has since gone on to a career in both art and architecture, whilst still being committed to memory works that focus on some of the critical historical issues of our time. Her work ranges from site-specific art installations such as Ghost Forest at Madison Square Park, New York, to the library at Smith College to Novartis’s campus headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Currently, projects include the new performing arts lab space for Bard College and the new design for the Museum of Chinese in America in downtown Manhattan, New York. Lin is a member of the Bloomberg Foundation and the What is Missing? Foundation. She is a National Geographic Explorer at Large, and in 2016, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honor.