This event has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Please contact our box office for any questions regarding ticketing refunds at [email protected] or at 212-288-6400. 

Join us Monday, April 22 at 6:30 pm for a conversation between designer, sculptor, and environmentalist Maya Lin and American Museum of Natural History President Sean M. Decatur as they discuss Lin's final memorial, What Is Missing?

What Is Missing? is a multi-sited memorial created by Maya Lin to raise awareness through science-based artworks about the present sixth mass extinction of species, connect this loss of species to habitat degradation and loss, and emphasize that by protecting and restoring habitat, we can both reduce carbon emissions and protect species.

In her fifth and final memorial, Maya Lin “focuses attention on species and places that have gone extinct or will most likely disappear within our lifetime if we do not act to protect them.” What Is Missing? asks us to look at a memorial not as a singular, static object, but as a work that can exist in multiple forms and places around the world.

The memorial includes permanent sound and media sculptures, traveling exhibits, temporary installations, and this website – serving as the nexus for the entire project. The “Map of Memory”, featured in the COAL + ICE exhibition, highlights ecological histories of habitats, species, waterways, and cities—with timelines, videos, historic accounts, conservation success and disaster stories, and user-submitted personal memories. 

This program is part of the COAL + ICE exhibition and series of programs at Asia Society, Feb. 13-Aug. 11, 2024, designed to provoke thought and action on climate change. Galleries will be open until 6:30 p.m. on April 22 and museum admission will be included for holders of event tickets from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Maya Lin is an American artist, architectural designer and environmentalist known for her large-scale environmental installations, memorials and architectural works. Lin’s art explores how we experience and relate to landscape, setting up a systematic ordering of the land that is tied to history, memory, time, and language. Her interest in landscape has led to works influenced by topographies and geographic phenomena. Her artwork has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, with works in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Institution; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; and the California Academy of Sciences, among others. She is represented by the Pace Gallery in New York.

Sean M. Decatur is president of the American Museum of Natural History, one of the nation’s leading educational and cultural institutions, former president of Kenyon College and an award-winning scientist and educator. He has served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Oberlin College, professor at Mount Holyoke College, and a visiting scientist at MIT. He serves on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College and on the board of directors of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Joyce Foundation, and New York City Tourism + Conventions. He has served on numerous advisory boards and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. degree in biophysical chemistry from Stanford University.