On June 17th, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the dedication of Elyn Zimmerman's Mkusanyiko wa Marafiki/Assembly of Friends at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. To read the newsletter, please click here.

In the spirit of this monumental milestone and our friendship with the artist, we would like to spotlight some of her additional works.

Originally titled Marabar, the artist’s commission remained an iconic fixture in front of the National Geographic Society's headquarters until 2022 when it was transformed into Sudama for American University’s campus.

The artist’s inspiration for the National Geographic work came from the rock cut caves in India she encountered during her travels there in 1977 as well as from E. M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India (1924). Forster’s description of the fictional Marabar Caves was based on the real, ancient Barabar Caves in northeast India.

The most prominent of these caves is named Sudama and was created over 3,000 years ago. In the transformation of the work to American University, the artist felt it needed a new identity and named the piece after this historic cave.

Thanks to a generous gift from FAPE Board member Agnes Gund, FAPE is honored to have Elyn’s Kosmos/Saturn in our GIFT FOR THE NATION Collection 250 which will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the United States.

To listen to the artist’s conversation with FAPE Director Jennifer Duncan about the works and the inspiration behind them, click here.