Inspiring Presentations at Oberlander Prize Forum II: Landscape Activism

The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Published November 14, 2022

Featuring Maura Rockcaste, PLA, ASLA

BLACK - What are the meanings and implications of that one word? That lone word projected on a large screen marked the beginning of Jane Edmonds’ provocative keynote at the October 28, 2022, Oberlander Prize II: Landscape Activism symposium held at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX. The symposium featured a diversity of voices and a unanimity of purpose: demonstrating that landscape architecture and design are a foundation for activism addressing race, gender, sexuality, the environment, and other pressing issues. The symposium proceedings were recorded and will be posted soon on The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s YouTube page. Edmonds’ presentation probed the political, social, cultural, and economic meanings of “BLACK” and “WHITE,” and drew on the inspiration of Mel King,  the Boston educator, community organizer, and activist, and her own extensive experience in civil rights work and time as a cabinet-level member in the administrations of Massachusetts governors Michael Dukakis and Mitt Romney. She described the evolution in landscape activism from early, targeted justice campaigns to the current, broader mandate to utilize landscape design as a means of realizing equity and belonging, connected to place and place-making, for all people…

Read the entire article here.