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Renowned artist and designer Maya Lin presents new and major works. 

Introduced by Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts. Followed by a conversation with Andrew Revkin, The Earth Institute.

© Maya Lin

Mapping the Future adds to Lin’s ongoing project, What is Missing?, which “creates, through science–based artworks, an awareness about the present sixth mass extinction of species, connects this loss of species to habitat degradation and loss, and emphasizes that by protecting and restoring habitat, we can both reduce carbon emissions and protect species.”

On display May 10–November 14 in Madison Square Park,  Ghost Forest is a “towering stand of forty-nine haunting Atlantic white cedar trees. Lin brings her vision as an artist and her agency as an environmental activist to this project, a memory of germination, vegetation, and abundance and a harsh symbol of the devastation of climate change. The height of each tree, around forty feet, overwhelms human scale and stands as a metaphor of the outsized impact of a looming environmental calamity.”

In 2009, Maya Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Lin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, praising her for a celebrated career in both art and architecture, and for creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a sacred place of healing in the US capital.

Co-presented by Center for the Study of Social Difference, Columbia University School of the Arts, Columbia World Projects, The Earth Institute, and The Forum.