Maya Lin

Born

October 5, 1959, Athens (Athens County) source

Also known as

Maya Lin, Lin Ying

Known as

Art, Architecture, Environment

Maya Lin was born in Athens in 1959 to Chinese immigrants who both taught at Ohio University: her father, ceramist Henry Huan Lin, was dean of the College of Fine Arts and her mother, Julia Chang Lin, a poet and literature professor. As a high-school student she took Ohio University courses, casting bronze in its foundry and learning computer programming, and she graduated from Athens High School in The Plains in 1977. In 1981, still an undergraduate at Yale, she won the national competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, beating 1,421 other entries, and went on to design the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and many landscape works. She credits the Hopewell and Adena mounds near her childhood home for her interest in earthworks, and has made three permanent works in Ohio: Groundswell at the Wexner Center in Columbus (1993), the Reading a Garden fountain at Cleveland Public Library (1998) and Input, a punch-card earthwork at Ohio University (2004). She received the National Medal of Arts in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

• Athens (1959-1977)
  birthplace and childhood; parents on the Ohio University faculty; took Ohio University classes in high school Athens County · source
• The Plains, Athens High School (to 1977)
  graduated 1977 Athens County · source
• Columbus, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University (1992-1993, 2013, 2019)
  second Wexner Center Artist Residency in visual arts; made and later restored Groundswell; 2019 exhibition HERE Franklin County · source
• Cleveland, Main Library (1998)
  designed the Reading a Garden fountain in the Eastman Reading Garden Cuyahoga County · source
• Athens, Ohio University Bicentennial Park (2004)
  designed the earthwork Input for the university's bicentennial Athens County · source

1. 1959 Born in Athens, Ohio, on 5 October; her parents had emigrated from China in 1948 and 1949 and settled in Ohio. source
2. 1977 Graduated from Athens High School in The Plains after taking Ohio University courses in bronze casting and computer programming. source
3. 1981 Won the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial while an undergraduate at Yale, and graduated with a B.A. source
4. 1982 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was completed in late October and dedicated in November. source
5. 1986 Earned a Master of Architecture at Yale and opened a studio in New York City. source
6. 1989 Designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. source
7. 1993 Groundswell, shattered recycled glass filling three spaces of the Wexner Center in Columbus, was installed in the spring and dedicated on 17 October with the exhibition Maya Lin: Public/Private. source
8. 1995 The documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision won the Academy Award for best documentary. source
9. 1998 Her fountain Reading a Garden was dedicated on 18 September in the redesigned Eastman Reading Garden at Cleveland Public Library. source
10. 2004 Input, 21 raised and sunken grass rectangles laid out like a computer punch card with words by her brother Tan Lin, was dedicated in Ohio University's Bicentennial Park. source
11. 2009 Received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. source
12. 2013 Removed, sifted and cleaned all of Groundswell's glass in January and reinstalled it herself in April for its 20th anniversary. source
13. 2016 Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. source
14. 2019 Returned to the Wexner Center with two new site-specific works for its 30th-anniversary exhibition HERE: Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Maya Lin. source

• Born: Athens, Athens County Athens · Athens County
• Connected: Athens, Athens County Athens · Athens County
• Connected: The Plains, Athens County Athens County
• Connected: Columbus, Franklin County Columbus · Franklin County
• Connected: Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Cleveland · Cuyahoga County
• Connected: Athens, Athens County Athens · Athens County

• Maya Lin: Groundswell, Wexner Center for the Arts history of the work (1993, restored 2013) 1993, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University
• 'Students remain unaware of Input', The Post (Athens), October 2005 2005, The Post, Ohio University
• Outdoor Ohio Sculpture Inventory records: Input (1809), Groundswell (839), Reading a Garden (920) The Sculpture Center, Cleveland

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Lin
• https://wexarts.org/content/maya-lin-groundswell
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wexner_Center_for_the_Arts
• https://cpl.org/aboutthelibrary/eastman-reading-garden/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Public_Library
• https://www.ohio.edu/building-directory/bicentennial-park
• https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2005/10/students-remain-unaware-of-input
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/items/show/1809
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/api/items/839
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/api/items/920
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/api/geolocations/1246
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/api/geolocations/527
• https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/api/geolocations/198
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_High_School_(Ohio)
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maya_Lin
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maya_Lin_at_Crystal_Awards_Ceremony_(2023)_02.png
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maya_Lin,_2014_(cropped).jpg
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maya_Lin_1.JPG
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Secretary_Kerry_Poses_for_a_Photo_With_the_Recipients_of_the_Medal_of_Arts_Lifetime_Achievement_Awards.jpg

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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