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Famous Sculptor Maya Lin Tapped to
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VANCOUVER---The announcement last week that famed architect Maya Lin will be designing four Lewis and Clark-related commemorative projects to be placed in Washington state brought enthusiastic reactions from local officials and historians.
Lin first gained fame in 1982 when her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was selected from among dozens of applicants. She was a 21-year-old graduate student at Yale University when her design was accepted. The announcement was made last Wednesday by Edward Lynch, co-president of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust Board of Trustees. The project has been in the works for more than a year, spearheaded by the Umatilla Confederated Tribes, the Lewis and Clark Commemorative Committee of Vancouver-Clark County and Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark. "These groups proposed a four-site project to ... Lin," Lynch said, "that would tell the story of cultures, environment, a great river, exploration and settlement." The projects will be placed along the Columbia River near the confluences of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, the Snake and Columbia rivers, the Willamette and Columbia rivers and the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean in Pacific County. "We believe that Ms. Lin will create thought-provoking interpretive projects that will tell a story based on sensitivity, respect and compassion," Lynch said last week. "It is our hope that these projects will encourage cultural understanding." "We have the potential for immortality in our back yard," Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark Chair Carolyn Glenn said last week. "If Maya Lin does a significant interpretive art piece, it will be there forever. I'm really excited about it. I think the whole serial sculpture series is a fascinating concept and is rather unusual in the art world." Long Beach City Administrator Nabiel Shawa was equally enthusiastic. "The city is absolutely thrilled that an artist of Maya Lin's prestige and notoriety is going to do a sculpture in our area. I'm excited to be part of it." Shawa praised Gov. Gary Locke for his support of the project. "He was asked for his support by Vancouver and the Nez Perce Tribe for their areas. He (Locke) said he would support the project only if it included the Long Beach Peninsula," Shawa said. "We couldn't have done it alone, no question." Shawa said Lin had never tackled a project like this one. "She's never done two, now she's coming to the Northwest to do four," he said. "This is a great coup for Pacific County." Glenn said Lin "has tackled emotional and sensitive issues through the Vietnam Memorial as well as the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., and brings people to think about those issues. These will be places where people will really reflect on the expedition and its consequences to Native Americans and natural resources. It's really exciting for the whole Columbia River region. For our little area to have an internationally renowned artist do a piece is really exciting." Lynch said individuals from the four sites "noted that Lin's past works inspired them to identify her as the most appropriate person to contact for the project." He said the Vietnam Memorial and the Civil Rights Memorial and also The Women's Table at Yale University "have been highly acclaimed for creating an intensely private experience within the most public context. Their intimate human scale invites individuals of all backgrounds to touch, to feel, to respond and to contemplate." A timeline for the projects hasn't been set but planning and preparation will take place next year and in 2002, with ground-breaking scheduled for 2003 and completion by July 4, 2005. Cost of the project hasn't yet been determined. A fund-raising campaign will be announced. Copyright 2001 Chinook Observer; republication by permission only. |
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