Matthew Coolidge, Founder & Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation
Matthew Coolidge is the founder and director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, an education and research organization based in Los Angeles, California. Dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived, the Center has produced exhibitions, presentations, tours, publications, online resources, and other public programs that examine, describe, and explain the built landscape of the nation.
CLUI is a research and education organization interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface, and in finding new meanings in the intentional and incidental forms that we individually and collectively create. The Center views the manmade landscape as a cultural inscription that can be to better understand who we are, and what we are doing.
The organization was founded in 1994, and since that time it has produced dozens of exhibits on land use themes and regions, for public institutions all over the United States, as well as overseas. The Center publishes books, conducts public tours, and offers information and research resources through its library, archive, and website.
The CLUI exists to stimulate discussion, thought, and general interest in the contemporary landscape. Neither an environmental group nor an industry affiliated organization, the work of the Center integrates the many approaches to land use—the many perspectives of the landscape—into a single vision that illustrates the common ground in “land use” debates. At the very least, the Center attempts to emphasize the multiplicity of points of view regarding the utilization of terrestrial and geographic resources.