Exhibit Columbus Receives International Recognition from Environmental Design Research Association
2024–25 Cycle Yes And Earns Honorable Mention in the 2026 Great Places Awards
Columbus, Indiana — Landmark Columbus Foundation announced that Yes And, the 2024–25 cycle of Exhibit Columbus, has received an Honorable Mention in the Place Art category of the 2026 Great Places Awards presented by the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). The award was announced during EDRA57, the association's annual international conference, held May 27–30, 2026, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Presented annually, the Great Places Awards recognize work that combines design, research, and practice to create humane, meaningful, and inclusive places. The Place Art category honors projects that use art to explore the relationship between people and place, and to activate public space through engagement, interpretation, and shared experience.
The fifth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, Yes And, invited artists, designers, architects, educators, students, and community members to build upon the multiple and overlapping histories of Columbus. Inspired by the improvisational principle of affirming and expanding an idea, the cycle treated the city itself as an ongoing civic performance. Through installations, public programs, and collaborative experiences, Yes And explored how art and design can create new opportunities for people to gather, contribute, and imagine together. The 2025 exhibition opened on August 16, 2025, with thirteen site-responsive installations across downtown Columbus.
The cycle was shaped by a curatorial team of seven: Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison of Could Be Design; Mila Lipinski; Rasul Mowatt; Elizabeth Blazius and Jonathan Solomon of Preservation Futures; and Too Black.
In its assessment, the jury wrote:
"Through temporary installations, public programs, and community engagement, the exhibition invites residents and visitors to reinterpret familiar spaces, explore underrepresented narratives, and experiment with new forms of gathering and participation. By positioning art as a collaborative and research-driven tool for testing relationships between people and place, the project offers a compelling model for how temporary interventions can strengthen civic dialogue and expand access to architectural heritages."
2024–25 Exhibit Columbus Participants
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
Accessing Nostalgia by Adaptive Operations; Site and Partner: The Crump Theatre
Ellipsis by AD—WO; Site: The Former Irwin Block Building; ; Partner: The Office of Downtown Development
Joy Riding by Studio Barnes; Site: Jackson Street Parking Garage; Partner: City of Columbus
Lift by Studio Cooke John; Site and Partner: First Christian Church
University Design Research Fellows
Inside Out by Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy (Washington University in St. Louis College of Architecture Sam Fox School); Site: Columbus Area Visitors Center; Partner: Bartholomew County Public Library
A View of the World from Indiana by Sarah Aziz (University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning); Partner: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
Pool/Side by Akima Brackeen (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign School of Architecture); Site: Library Plaza; Partner: Bartholomew County Public Library
The Steel Horsie by Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, and Aleksandr Mergold (New Jersey Institute of Technology Hillier College of Architecture and Design); Site and Partner: Bartholomew County Historical Society
Apart, Together by Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Lettieri (Cornell University School of Architecture); Site: Ovation Plaza; Partner: Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center and Ovation Technology Group
PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS by César Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germán Pallares-Avitia (University of Virginia School of Architecture, Syracuse University School of Architecture, Columbia University GSAPP, Rhode Island School of Design); Site: Central Middle School; Partner: Central Middle School and Columbus Signature Academy (CSA) Lincoln Elementary School
Communication Design
Motions by Sing-Sing; Site and Partner: Columbus Area Visitors Center, across the exhibition's graphic identity, wayfinding, animations, and visitor experience
Design Education Team(s)
Valence by Design Education Team with High School students from Brown, Bartholomew, Jackson, and Decatur Counties in Indiana, in coordination with C4 instructor Darin Johnson, and advised by Indiana University’s Sidney and Lois Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design professor Spencer SteenblikSite: J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program; Partner: Bartholomew County School Corporation (BCSC) C4 Columbus Area Career Connection
How could your favorite downtown Columbus building be re-envisioned for the future? by Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) 5th and 6th Grade STEM Students with Davida Harden, Allison Meyer, and Ashley Toler; Site: Eight downtown storefront merchant windows; Partner: Bartholomew County School Corporation
"This recognition reflects what the artists, designers, curators, community partners, volunteers, and participants demonstrated throughout the Yes And cycle," said Richard McCoy, Executive Director of Landmark Columbus Foundation. "For ten years, Exhibit Columbus has explored how design excellence can strengthen civic life. This award recognizes the power of art and design to help communities gather, ask questions, imagine possibilities, and shape a shared future."
Since its founding in 1968, EDRA has brought together researchers, designers, planners, educators, and practitioners committed to understanding and improving the relationships between people and their environments. The Great Places Awards are among the organization's most respected international recognitions.
The recognition comes as Exhibit Columbus marks its tenth year. During 2026, Landmark Columbus Foundation is undertaking Fieldwork, a season devoted to research, stewardship, and reflection on a decade of public design practice. The work will inform the next cycle of Exhibit Columbus, which begins in 2027, and contribute to a broader understanding of how design excellence can strengthen civic life.
Photography for Press
2024–25 Exhibit Columbus Yes And photography credits are: Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation.
Media Contact
Jamie Goldsborough
jamie@landmarkcolumbus.org
About Exhibit Columbus
Exhibit Columbus is a public design program in Columbus, Indiana, that explores community, architecture, art, and design by activating the city’s modern legacy through site-responsive installations and public conversations about how design strengthens civic life. Exhibit Columbus is one of four program areas of Landmark Columbus Foundation. exhibitcolumbus.org
About Landmark Columbus Foundation
Landmark Columbus Foundation exists to demonstrate what design excellence can mean to a community, earned through discipline, proven in public, and cared for as a legacy for the future. Through preservation, exhibitions, public art, research, and partnerships, the Foundation advances the cultural heritage and contemporary civic life of Columbus, Indiana, while sharing lessons with communities across Indiana and beyond. landmarkcolumbusfoundation.org
