Columbus, Indiana — The Exhibit Columbus 2025 Exhibition, Yes And, opens the weekend of Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16 in downtown Columbus. The exhibition will feature thirteen outdoor, site-responsive installations, each inspired by partnerships across the diverse communities of Columbus and connected to the theme of the 2024–25 Cycle, Yes And. The modern design legacy serves as a world-class backdrop for living, creating an unmatched experience alongside contemporary art and architecture. This is the fifth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, launched in 2016 as a program of the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation, an exploration of community, architecture, art, and design. Over the past four cycles, Exhibit Columbus has elevated dialogue around how art and design can meaningfully improve cities and public life.

This two-day event offers the rare opportunity to experience the installations in the company of the architects, artists, and designers who created them, alongside curators, Columbus residents, and global visitors. There will be five key events to celebrate the opening of the exhibition (schedule below), and all are free and open to the public. “Opening the fifth exhibition of Exhibit Columbus feels like a historic moment for our community and everyone that is a part of this cycle,” said Richard McCoy, the Executive Director of Landmark Columbus Foundation. “We are so proud to produce, yet again, an event in Southern Indiana that gathers global attention. And we get to offer this cultural experience without charging admission.” 

Friday, August 158 pm – 11 pm

Sunset Preview Party on 4th Street
A festive kickoff with music by a special guest DJ, local food and drink, and a chance to preview the exhibition as the sun sets over Columbus.

Saturday, August 16
9 am – 11:30 amExhibition Walking Tour around downtown
Guided by the designers themselves, this tour begins with breakfast and coffee at the Columbus Area Visitors Center, and ends at The Crump. We will visit all 13 installations.

Explore all day!
Installation Activations around downtown
Each installation will activate downtown through collaborative events created with community partners.

1:30 pm – 3 pm
Curatorial Conversation at First Christian Church
Join the Curatorial Partners for a deep dive into the making of this cycle—and its power to inspire other communities.

5:30 pm – 10 pm
Avenue of Architects Celebration on 5th Street
One of America’s most celebrated streets comes alive as everyone celebrates the opening of the exhibition with food trucks, specialty drinks, activities, and live performances. The evening culminates with a Variety Show and a ceremony honoring all 2025 participants.

The Curatorial Partners form the core of the curatorial team (with additional support from Landmark Columbus Foundation staff) and are responsible for developing and advancing the theme for this cycle of Exhibit Columbus. Their varied backgrounds represent a wide range of experience in architecture, history, design, writing, and the performing arts. Each curator brings a thoughtful and artistic approach to working collaboratively within diverse communities.

The Curatorial Partners selected the 2024–25 Exhibit Columbus participants through a collaborative process. Miller Prize recipients were matched with architecturally significant downtown sites and paired with a local business or organization connected to that place. University Design Research Fellows (UDRFs) were selected through a national open call to educators in architecture, design, and art. For the first time, Exhibit Columbus also issued an open call for community partners, pairing participating organizations with UDRF teams to deepen local collaboration.

United by the curatorial theme Yes And, this exhibition features the work of four J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients, six University Design Research Fellowship (UDRF) teams, two Design Education Teams, and Communication Designers. Each design team brings a unique perspective and contributes to a collaborative process. As Yes And participants, they build on existing ideas, places, and relationships to imagine new possibilities for public space in Columbus.

Yes And invites everyone to explore the legacy of Columbus, Indiana, by adding to the multiple and overlapping lives of its buildings and public spaces. The phrase, drawn from improvisational theater, is a strategy for affirmation and expansion—saying “yes” to what exists and “and” to what could be. In this cycle, it acts as a participatory call to build from existing conditions toward shared visions of positive change.

“In just two months, visitors and community members will have the opportunity to experience Yes And for the first time during Opening Weekend—whether by dipping their toes into a purple wading pool, pausing to smell the flowers on the old Irwin Block site, or taking in the view of the city from atop the parking garage. Together, the thirteen contributors of Yes And celebrate and expand Columbus’ public spaces, reimagining what forms of togetherness and collaboration can take root,” said the seven-person team of Curatorial Partners, including Could Be Design (Architects, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois), Mila Lipinski (Architectural Designer, Duvall Decker, Jackson, Mississippi), Rasul Mowatt (Writer and Educator, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina), Preservation Futures (Historians and Preservationists, Chicago, Illinois), Too Black (Artist and Poet, Indianapolis, Indiana).

Throughout this two-year cycle, the theme has sparked a series of programs, including the 2024 Community Kickoff, 2024 Symposium, and the 2025 Design Presentations. The conversations at these events have activated locations throughout downtown Columbus, encouraging participants to be deeply responsive to the local context while connecting with national and global audiences.

J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
The Miller Prize was created in 2016 to honor studio-based practitioners focused on improving urban environments through sincere engagement with communities. The name of the Prize calls upon the legacy of former Columbus community leaders, J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, two of the greatest patrons of art and architecture of the 20th century and a family with an unparalleled commitment to building community. The nineteen Miller Prize Recipients from previous cycles are some of the most recognized names working in their fields today, including studio:indigenios, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Frida Escobedo, SO-IL, Ecosistema Urbano, Olalekan Jeyifous, Tatian Bilbao ESTUDIO, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism among many others.

Adaptive Operations
Chicago, Illinois
Site and Partner: The Crump Theatre
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/adaptive-operations 

AD—WO
Brooklyn, New York
Site: The former Irwin Block Building
Partner: The Office of Downtown Development
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/ad-wo

Studio Barnes
Miami, Florida
Site: The Jackson Street Parking Garage
Partner: City of Columbus Redevelopment Commission
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/studio-barnes

Studio Cooke John
New York, New York
Site and Partner: The First Christian Church Sunken Courtyard
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/studio-cooke-john

These individuals and teams were selected through a national open call for full-time university faculty whose work is deeply rooted in design research. The Curatorial Partners reviewed nearly fifty submissions and selected six UDRF teams for this cycle.

Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy
Washington University of Saint Louis
Site and Partner: Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/ahrens-vale-van-dyck-murphy 

Sarah Aziz
University of New Mexico
Site: St. Peter's Lutheran Church
Partner: Propeller
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/aziz 

Akima Brackeen
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Site and Partner: Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/brackeen

César A. Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germán Pallares-Avitia
University of Virginia, Syracuse University, Columbia University, Rhode Island School of Design
Site and Partner: Central Middle School
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/lopez-myers-ng-pallares-avitia 

Suzanne Lettieri and Michael Jefferson
Cornell University
Site and Partner: Ovation Plaza
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/jefferson-lettieri 

Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, Aleksandr Mergold
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Site: Bartholomew County Historical Society
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/fu-goldstein-mergold 

Sing-Sing
Los Angeles, California
Site and Partner: Columbus Area Visitors Center
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/sing-sing 

with Indiana University Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design professor Spencer Steenblik
Site: J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program
Partner: Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program and Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/design-education-team 

with Bartholomew County School Corporation (BCSC) Science, Engineering, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) coordinator Davida Harden
Site: Downtown Storefronts
Partner: BCSC STEM
Learn more: exhibitcolumbus.org/bcsc-stem