TCLF’s Kauffman Cultural Landscape Fellow Andre Szabo expands public awareness of works by pioneering women land artists

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Kauffman Fellow Andre Szabo. Photo by Thomas Rowell.

As the 2026 Danette Gentile Kauffman Cultural Landscape Fellow with The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), graduate landscape architecture student Andre Szabo (MLA ’28) returned to his hometown of Washington, D.C., this summer to investigate the work of pioneering women land artists. Working alongside TCLF’s President and CEO, Charles A. Birnbaum and other staff, Szabo honed his research, writing and content development skills to contribute to the organization’s What’s Out There and Public Art Advocacy programs. 
 
TCLF’s What’s Out There project is a searchable database that spans over two centuries of North American landscape design that aims to raise public awareness of the rich diversity of designed landscapes, while also serving as an academic resource. The Public Art Advocacy initiative promotes sound stewardship, and assist artists, cultural institutions, stewards, and others associated with land-based art (and art in the public realm) by offering strategic technical assistance and providing a forum to draw immediate and lasting attention to at-risk works, collecting and disseminating information, and coalition building to mobilize support on behalf of the artists and their work. 
 
We asked Andre to share more about his experiences as a Kauffman Fellow this summer with TCLF.

As a Kauffman Fellow, you are researching site-specific artworks created by pioneering women artists, including Nancy Holt, Jody Pinto, Elyn Zimmerman, and others. What are a few notable projects or discoveries that you unearthed in your research? 

I entered the field of landscape architecture to expand my art practice and better understand the cultural, ecological, and sociological stories inherent in the landscape. As a student at UVA, I quickly learned that landscape design engages multiple fields of study all at once. 

The opportunity to research these artworks deepened my understanding of how artists respond to and collaborate with site-specific conditions to tell its story.
 

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With the support of Mr. Charles Birnbaum and TCLF staff, we identified sites that would expand TCLF’s Public Art Advocacy and What’s Out There programs. Select examples include artist Beverly Buchanan’s Ruins & Rituals (1979), an installation of monumental forms in Macon, Georgia that confronts race and memory in the American South. In Tree of Life/Eastern Boundary (1992), the artist Jody Pinto—in collaboration with landscape architect Steve Martino—created a rill and terrace system to resuscitate native desert vegetation in Phoenix, drawing inspiration from indigenous water harvesting systems. Connections (1992) by Athena Tacha features terraced gardens and clusters of boulders that form an urban, contemplative garden maintained by community volunteers.
 
In January 2025, the Des Moines Art Center removed renowned artist Mary Miss’s land installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996). The Art Center cited deteriorating building materials and concerns about structural integrity, while the artist claimed the museum failed to protect and maintain the piece. How do you anticipate your research will help to expand public awareness of important artworks like Double Site that may face demolition due to deferred maintenance?

It seems common sense that designed landscapes—just as architecture needs preservation or painting needs restoration—require maintenance to ensure longevity. However, thirty years after its creation, Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) was demolished by the same institution that commissioned it. That the artwork was not restored or relocated but destroyed altogether demonstrates the Des Moines Art Center’s failure not only in stewardship but also to celebrate its own curatorial vision to commission an artwork by pioneer, environmental artist Mary Miss. 

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In order to avoid a similar fate, artworks in public space require visibility through curated programming and community engagement. That these landscapes matter is evident in TCLF’s successful campaign to save Elyn Zimmerman’s Marabar (1984), the Nasher Museum’s Groundswell (2023) exhibition, Dia Art Foundation’s stewardship of several land artworks, as well as the recent nomination of Robert Morris’ Untitled Earthwork (Johnson Pit #30) and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty to the National Register of Historic Places. Though Double Site was demolished, the public response from artists, designers, and historians brought a level of visibility that will influence future stewardship and maintenance of similar sites.
 
You have a background in studio art and film. How have these practices influenced your approach to landscape architecture? 

Before attending UVA, I was literally bringing the landscape into my Red Hook art studio to create paintings made of soil, ash, stone, and found materials. 

I see landscape architecture as a sculptural expansion of my practice beyond the studio and art object. 
 

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The practices of these artists, especially Beverly Buchanan, Jody Pinto, and Patricia Johanson, carefully consider site and allow its cultural, historical, and ecological details to inform their work. Rather than ‘plopping’ their art in the landscape or imposing their vision on the land, their work is layered with meaning to reveal invisible histories and engage a site’s memory. These projects served as case studies in how to listen to the unique needs of a site and the importance of fieldwork and community engagement.
 
Describe a highlight during your time as a Kauffman Fellow. 

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Two artworks created by artist Nancy Holt began and ended my fellowship. The opportunity to thoroughly research Sun Tunnels (1976) and Dark Star Park (1983) bridged my interest in land art with an enduring fascination with indigenous earthworks found throughout the North American landscape. Sites such as Cahokia and Hopewell served various ceremonial functions for the indigenous cultures that built them including alignment with celestial phenomena to unify earth, body, and sky. The relationship between these landscapes is a point of interest I intend to further explore through research and in my own art practice.