For Immediate Release
April 20, 2004

Contact: Judy Keyserling
 202-393-0090

MAYA LIN TO HELP SELECT WINNING DESIGN FOR
VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL EDUCATION CENTER
Internationally Acclaimed Artist Joins Jury for Final Stage
 of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s National Design Competition

Washington, D.C. — Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, renowned artist Maya Lin will be part of the selection committee that decides which of the four finalists in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s National Design Competition will be commissioned to design the Memorial’s new Education Center, announced Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. 

Internationally acclaimed in both art and architecture, Lin rose to prominence after designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1981; she was elected unanimously by a jury from among 1,421 entries in the Memorial Fund’s national design competition when she was only 21 years old and a senior at Yale.  Since then, Lin has received many awards, including the architecture prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for designing buildings like the Langston Hughes Library (Clinton, TN) and the Museum of African Art (Soho, NY).  Designer of the Civil Rights Memorial (Montgomery, AL) and the Wave Field at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), Lin has also been awarded the Presidential Design Award, the American Institute of Architects Honor Award and the Henry Bacon Memorial Award, as well as Honorary Doctorates in Fine Arts from Harvard, Yale, Brown, Smith and Williams.  She recently served as a juror in the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition.

Commenting on her participation as a juror, Lin said, “The Education Center will be an important contribution to the visitor experience.  I am delighted to be a part of the process and to be able to help select a design consistent with preserving the integrity of the Memorial site.  The architects who are competing are all respected in the profession.”

Maya Lin joins a jury of prominent community leaders and design experts for the final round in the Memorial Fund’s Education Center competition.  They will meet in Washington, DC in late summer when the four finalists present their designs and ideas.  (For more information about the competition, visit www.vvmf.org.)

On November 17, 2003, President Bush amended the original legislation for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Public Law 96-297), allowing the Memorial Fund to construct an underground Education Center near the Memorial.  The Memorial Fund worked tirelessly for more than three years to move the bill through Congress. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE), John Kerry (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), all Vietnam era veterans, along with House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA), Vice Chairman Jim Gibbons (R-NV) and Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-WV) were instrumental in the bill’s progress through the 108th Congress.

The Education Center will provide a thought-provoking educational experience, working in synergy with the Memorial.  It will feature photographs of those who were killed or remain missing, some of the more than 60,000 items that have been left at The Wall and other engaging displays, to be developed over the next year. The Memorial Fund will be responsible for raising the funds to build the Education Center, which is expected to cost over $25 million and take about three years to complete.  No federal funds will be used for the Education Center.  Between 1980 and 1982, the Memorial Fund raised $8.4 million to build The Wall with contributions from individuals, veterans organizations, foundations and corporations.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the most visited memorial in the nation’s capital with more than four million visitors each year.  It is dedicated to all who served with the U.S. Armed Forces in the Vietnam War and its black granite panels are inscribed with the names of the 58,235 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is the non-profit organization authorized by Congress to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Today, through a series of outreach programs, the organization works to preserve the legacy of The Wall, to promote healing and to educate about the impact of the Vietnam War.

Memorial Selection Committee:  Jan C. Scruggs, Founder and President, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund; Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Commissioner, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; H. J. Groen, Chairman, Groen Brothers Aviation; Maya Lin, Artist; Steven J. Phillips, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Cardiovascular Hospitals of America; Peter Prichard, President, The Freedom Forum; Wayne Smith, Executive Director, The Justice Project; Admiral George Worthington, former Navy SEAL Commander

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