The AA is Awarded a Graham Foundation Grant for 'The Word for World' Exhibition

The AA has been granted funding from the Graham Foundation for the upcoming exhibition The Word for World: the Maps of Ursula K Le Guin. Co-curated by Sarah Shin, cofounder of feminist publisher Silver Press, and AA Public Programme curators Harriet Jennings and Molly Evans, the exhibition recontextualises Le Guin’s maps as a world into which visitors from the general public enter. It interprets important architectures and places in her work, such as the house, the archipelago, the forest, the mountain and the valley, showing how each place is both a world in itself and in relation to each other. The exhibition design by Standard Deviation is inspired by the diverse influences on Le Guin’s worldview to propose a model for reciprocity, harmony and sustainability between built and natural environments. The exhibition is a creative engagement with her imaginary worlds and an invitation to consider how to rebuild our own.

Read more about the grant here.

The World for World is open to the public in the AA Gallery from 10 October to 6 December 2025. Find out more here.

Image: 'Rivers that run into the Inland Sea', 1985, Ink on paper. Courtesy Ursula K Le Guin Foundation