Exhibit Columbus 2025 Opening Weekend Yes And Celebrates Community, Creativity, and Collaboration
Columbus, Indiana — On August 15 and 16, Landmark Columbus Foundation (LCF) will unveil the Exhibit Columbus 2025 Exhibition, Yes And, ushering in what promises to be the most exciting fall season yet for art and architecture fans. The 2025 exhibition features thirteen new outdoor, site‑responsive installations built through partnerships with local organizations and inspired by Columbus’ modern design legacy. The two‑day opening weekend is free and open to the public, offering the rare chance to experience each installation alongside the architects, artists, designers, and curators who created them. The exhibition will remain open until November 30.
A weekend of marquee events
Friday night kicks off with the Rooftop Happy Hour on the Jackson Street Parking Garage (8 p.m.–11 p.m.), a festive rooftop gathering with guest DJ Rasul Mowatt, sweet treats, and drinks available at local bars. Saturday begins with the Exhibition Walking Tour (9 a.m.–11:30 a.m.), guided by the designers themselves; the tour starts at the Columbus Area Visitors Center, includes light refreshments by Lucabe Coffee Co., and visits all 13 installations. Installation activations run all day across downtown, each organized with community partners. At 1:30 p.m., the Curatorial Conversation at First Christian Church invites attendees to learn how the exhibition came together. The day culminates with the Avenue of Architects Celebration (5:30 p.m.–10 p.m.), when Fifth Street is transformed with food trucks, specialty drinks, live performances, and a concert by the Peyton Womack Band.
Beyond opening weekend, Columbus’ calendar is packed with cultural programming: Next Generation Day, Rock the Block, and Columbus Pride on September 6; Miller Prize Conversations; Fiesta Latina; the Scottish Festival; Progressive Preservation lectures; YES Design–AND Research: The 2025 University Design Research Fellowship Colloquium; and the Ethnic Expo. The Columbus Area Arts Council will be hosting the Alexander Girard, Reverberations—Forever exhibition curated by Rick Valicenti and Suzie Shin. The Columbus Area Visitors Center is currently showcasing Cheap Opulence by Sara Yourist and Ana Meza. The Bartholomew County Historical Society is displaying a tribute to 10 years of Exhibit Columbus. These events ensure the best fall ever for art, design, and heritage enthusiasts.
Building on past successes
The 2023 Exhibition, Public by Design, drew visitors worldwide and demonstrated how collaborative design could revitalize downtowns. The curatorial partners described it as “about revitalization and imagination with a commitment to equity, beauty, and joy while creating new forms of public space.” This year’s Yes And expands that vision: the theme, drawn from improvisational theatre, invites everyone to explore Columbus’ legacy by affirming what exists and adding what could be. It asks participants to build from existing conditions toward shared visions of positive change.
Quotes from leaders and collaborators
Mark Elwood, Chair of Landmark Columbus Foundation Board of Directors – “This event is pivotal to the future of our community, especially downtown. We’re building on what we’ve accomplished to make the Foundation—and Exhibit Columbus—an even more vital and solid organization.”
Curatorial Partners — “Yes And invites visitors to explore the legacy of Columbus by adding to the multiple and overlapping lives of its buildings and public spaces. It’s a participatory call to affirm what exists and imagine what could be, encouraging new forms of togetherness and collaboration,” said the seven‑person team (Could Be Design, Mila Lipinski, Rasul Mowatt, Preservation Futures, and Too Black).
Misty Weisensteiner, Executive Director of the Columbus Area Visitors Center — “This project affirms the power of tourism marketing to elevate not just visitation, but the overall perception of Columbus as a dynamic, livable community. Events like Exhibit Columbus showcase our architecture, creativity, and hospitality; we’re proud to see our city recognized and excited to strengthen our brand and economic vitality.”
Richard McCoy, Executive Director of Landmark Columbus Foundation — “Opening the fifth exhibition of Exhibit Columbus feels like a historic moment for our community. We are so proud to produce, yet again, an event in southern Indiana that gathers global attention while offering this cultural experience without charging admission.”
Why Yes And matters
The curatorial partners selected participants through a collaborative process, pairing Miller Prize recipients and University Design Research Fellows with local businesses and community organizations as site and community partners. The 2025 exhibition includes four J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients—Adaptive Operations, AD—WO, Studio Barnes, and Studio Cooke John—and six University Design Research Fellow teams, two design education teams, and a communication design studio. Together, they build on existing ideas and relationships to imagine new possibilities for public space.
Yes And's call to affirm and expand resonates throughout the cycle. The theme’s description notes that it invites contributors to explore Columbus’s legacy by working from existing material to shape positive change. Whether recovering architectural remnants, reflecting on cultural legacy, staging dramatic spectacles, or reimagining public play, the exhibition asks everyone to help write the next chapter of Columbus’s design story.
Plan your visit
The 2025 Exhibit Columbus exhibition will remain on view through November 30, 2025. Visit exhibitcolumbus.org for free registration, travel information, and a complete schedule. Hotel packages with complimentary Exhibit Columbus gift bags are available through participating downtown hotels.
Please contact the Landmark Columbus Foundation for media inquiries, images, or participant interviews.
Media Contact
Jamie Goldsborough
jamie@landmarkcolumbus.org
About Exhibit Columbus
Exhibit Columbus is a program of Landmark Columbus Foundation and an exploration of community, architecture, art, and design that activates the modern legacy of Columbus, Indiana. It creates a cycle of programming that uses this context to convene conversations around innovative ideas and commissions site-responsive installations in a free, public exhibition. exhibitcolumbus.org
