Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to honor Maya Lin, the Designer of The Wall, as part of 35th Anniversary Commemoration

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) will honor Maya Lin, the designer of The Wall, officially thanking her for her memorial design and for her lifetime of artistic work, at a special reception on November 10^th at The Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. as part of the 35^th anniversary of The Wall commemoration.

Lin was a 21-year-old Yale undergraduate student when she won the design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She fought tirelessly to achieve her vision for the memorial despite significant efforts to alter it and to compromise the design. Her unwavering commitment to The Wall resulted in one of the most powerful and beloved memorials in the world.

The Wall reveals elements of art that have defined Lin's career, including earthwork, sculpture, design and architecture.  Lin's remarkable and highly acclaimed body of work in art and architecture demonstrates her continued brilliance in design and her steadfast commitment to address the nation's history and culture, including civil rights, women's history, environmental issues and Native American history. Her works merge the physical and psychological environment, presenting a new way of seeing the world around us, and enabling us to learn from history.

Lin has gone on to create seminal art and architectural works, such as the groundbreaking four-acre earthwork for Stormking Art Center and the 11-acre Fold in the Field for the Gibbs Estate in New Zealand. Lin's architectural works include a Chapel and Library for the Children's Defense Fund and the master plan and primary building in Novartis' Cambridge, Mass., complex, which The Boston Globe's Robert Campbell described as "A work of Art" that is "ambitious in its scope and brilliantly designed." Currently, Lin is working on What is Missing?, a multi-sited memorial dedicated to raising awareness about species loss and climate change, the new Neilson Library at Smith College and a major outdoor art installation at Princeton University.

"Maya Lin's design ? while controversial at the start ? is now considered one of the most incredible works of art in the world," said Jim Knotts, president and CEO of VVMF.  "As a 21-year-old student Lin was thrust into controversy right from the start, but she never wavered on her design. She has never been officially recognized by us for her tireless perseverance, and we at VVMF are thrilled to thank her as we honor her for the design of The Wall and for all of her incredible work since."

In 1996, a documentary chronicling her work, Maya Lin, A Strong Clear Vision, won the academy award for best documentary. Lin is a National Medal of the Arts winner and was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the nation's highest civilian honor. During the ceremony, President Obama said: "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has changed the way we think about monuments, but also about how we think about sacrifice, and patriotism, and ourselves. ... [Maya's] pieces have changed the landscape of our country and influenced the dialogue of our society -- never more profoundly than with her tribute to the Americans who fell in Vietnam by cutting a wound into the Earth to create a sacred place of healing in our Nation's capital."

For more information on the reception honoring Maya Lin, please visit:  www.vvmf.org/maya.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is the nonprofit organization that founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall) in Washington, D.C. in 1982. VVMF continues to lead the way in paying tribute to our nation's Vietnam veterans and their families. VVMF's mission is to honor and preserve the legacy of service in America and educate all generations about the impact of the Vietnam War and era. To learn more about VVMF, visit www.vvmf.org or call 202-393-0090.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Heidi Zimmerman
[email protected] or 202-765-3773

SOURCE Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund