Black Landscapes Matter: Inaugural College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean's Distinguished Lecture with Walter Hood

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On Thursday, April 1 at 4 p.m., the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at UMass Amherst welcomes acclaimed landscape designer and public artist Walter Hood as the inaugural speaker in the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series. His lecture “Black Landscapes Matter” discusses landscape architects, planning professionals and scholars to probe how race, memory and meaning intersect in the American landscape.

The theme for this year's Dean's Distinguished Lecture is “Race and the American Landscape.” How has the history of race and racism shaped the American landscape, broadly defined? What is the geography of race and racism, whether we consider the built environment and physical space or the meanings, memories and representations of places marked by race? Scholars and artists have explored these questions and related issues in the study of history, literature, philosophy, art and architecture.

The question “Do black landscapes matter?” cuts deep to the core of American history. From the plantations of slavery to contemporary segregated cities, from freedman villages to northern migrations for freedom, the nation’s landscape displays the fragments of diverse, often oppressive origins. Black landscapes matter because they tell the truth.

Hood is the creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, Cali. Hood Design Studio is a cultural practice, working across art, fabrication, design, landscape, research and urbanism. He is also the David K. Woo Chair and the professor of landscape architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He lectures on and exhibits professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. He was recently the Spring 2020 Diana Balmori Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and the Spring 2021 Senior Loeb Scholar for the Harvard GSD Loeb Fellowship.

Hood creates urban spaces that resonate with and enrich the lives of current residents while also honoring communal histories. Hood melds architectural and fine arts expertise with a commitment to designing ecologically sustainable public spaces that empower marginalized communities. Over his career, he has transformed traffic islands, vacant lots and freeway underpasses into spaces that challenge the legacy of neglect of urban neighborhoods. Through engagement with community members, he teases out the natural and social histories as well as current residents’ shared patterns and practices of use and aspirations for a place.

The Studio’s award-winning work has been featured in publications including Dwell, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, Places Journal, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. Walter Hood is also a recipient of the 2017 Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, 2019 Knight Foundation Public Spaces Fellowship, 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, 2019 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and most recently, the 2021 United States Artists Fellowship. Hood is also a Fellow at the American Academy of Rome and one of the 2021 elected members of the Academy of Arts and Letters. Hood Design Studio has also been featured in the 2021 AD 100 list.

This is the inaugural presentation of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series. This lecture series gives students and the university community the opportunity to learn from leading scholars, artists, writers and practitioners in the humanities and fine arts. Each year, the college will invite two speakers, who will address a broadly defined theme. Invited speakers are chosen based on their achievements and innovation in research, creative endeavors, education and advocacy in the humanities and arts.

Registration for the event is open.