Harvard's Maurice Cox and rural design leader Courtney Spearman open the Prove It Summit with a free public keynote Tomorrow at The Commons
Columbus, Indiana — The Prove It: A National Summit on Design Excellence as Civic Practice opens tomorrow, October 8, and continues through October 10 at The Commons in downtown Columbus. Hosted by Civic Design Institute (CDI), a program of Landmark Columbus Foundation, The Prove It Summit will launch the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership with Indiana Governor Mike Braun and the State of Indiana through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Indiana Arts Commission.
Thursday, October 8: Free Public Keynote
The Prove It Summit opens at 6 p.m. with a free public keynote: a conversation between two design leaders whose work spans America's largest cities, smallest towns, and Indigenous communities. Maurice Cox, Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, led planning for Detroit and then Chicago. Courtney Spearman directed rural design programs at the National Endowment for the Arts and now leads Fieldwork at Building Common Ground. Daniel Luis Martinez, Program Director of Indiana University's J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program in Columbus, will moderate. Together they take up the question at the heart of Prove It: what design excellence is for, and whom it serves, in a big city and in a small town.
U.S. Senator Todd Young will offer remarks, and Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon will welcome.
Friday, October 9: Working Day
Friday is the Prove It Summit’s primary working day. Five-person delegations from Michigan City, Muncie, Rushville, and Terre Haute, the Learning Partnership’s founding cohort, bring active design challenges from their own downtowns, neighborhoods, and public spaces. Through morning and afternoon sessions at The Commons, they work on those challenges with Columbus, with one another, and with national design faculty in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Representatives from all fifteen READI regions join them. The day concludes at Columbus’ Ethnic Expo, the city’s annual international festival of food, music, and culture. October 9 sessions are by invitation only.
The Prove It Summit's design faculty are David Dowell, Professor of Practice at Kansas State University and former partner at El Dorado; Gerardo Garcia of The Urbanism Bureau; Eric Lucas, CEO and Principal of MKSK; Jamie Simone, Chicago and Illinois Program Director at the Trust for Public Land; and Courtney Spearman, who also gives Thursday's keynote.
Saturday, October 10: What We Learned and What’s Next
The Prove It Summit concludes Saturday morning with programming across downtown Columbus, beginning at Ellipsis, the Exhibit Columbus installation by AD—WO, before returning to The Commons. The morning includes presentations from statewide resource partners, a look back at ten years of Exhibit Columbus, rapid charrettes with the Prove It Summit design faculty, and a conversation with Trinity Simons Wagner about design excellence and the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. Richard McCoy and Jessica Kartes will close the Prove It Summit. October 10 sessions are by invitation only.
What Comes Next
Civic Design Institute will publish a summary memo shortly after the Prove It Summit closes, followed by a draft framework with a starter set of indicators for measuring quality of place in Columbus and the partner communities. Over the next two years, the cohort will revise those indicators together.
“Indiana has made real investments in quality of place. Now we have to learn together which decisions will still serve people a generation from now,” said Richard McCoy, Executive Director of Landmark Columbus Foundation. “Columbus has been learning that lesson for more than 80 years. Starting tomorrow, we take up that work alongside four partner communities, every READI region, and national design leaders. We invite everyone to join the opening conversation.”
Attend
The Prove It Summit takes place October 8–10, 2026, at The Commons, 300 Washington Street, Columbus, Indiana. The October 8 keynote is free and open to the public; register at eventbrite.com/e/prove-it-keynote.
Visit Columbus, Indiana and the City of Columbus will sponsor the keynote.
Interested in the full Prove It Summit? Seats in the working sessions are limited and by invitation. Community leaders, design and planning professionals, funders, and organizations interested in the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership may write to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections, at beth@landmarkcolumbus.org.
The full program, speaker and design faculty biographies, headshots, and a fact sheet on the Learning Partnership are at civicdesigninstitute.org, and available for download at this link.
Press Contact
Jamie Goldsborough
Creative Director, Landmark Columbus Foundation
jamie@landmarkcolumbus.org
About Landmark Columbus Foundation
Landmark Columbus Foundation (LCF) 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. landmarkcolumbusfoundation.org
About Civic Design Institute
Civic Design Institute (CDI) is Landmark Columbus Foundation's platform for advancing design excellence as civic practice. Through research, convenings, partnerships, and publications, the Institute develops shared knowledge about how communities make and sustain better decisions about the built environment. civicdesigninstitute.org
About the Office of Commerce
The State of Indiana’s Office of Commerce was created by Governor Mike Braun to align and accelerate the state’s economic development efforts and is led by Indiana Secretary of Commerce Chuck Goodrich.
About Indiana Economic Development Corporation
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) is part of the State of Indiana’s Office of Commerce created by Governor Mike Braun to align and accelerate the state’s economic development efforts. Led by Indiana Secretary of Commerce Chuck Goodrich, the IEDC aims to increase jobs and wages for Hoosiers through initiatives and programs focused on business and industry, entrepreneurship and innovation, community investment and talent. iedc.in.gov
About Indiana Arts Commission
The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) is an agency of state government that works directly with communities, creatives, and organizations to harness the power of creativity to strengthen Indiana. Through its programs and services, the IAC funds and supports arts experiences, arts education, and the arts economy to enhance the quality of life for Indiana's people and places. in.gov/arts
About Visit Columbus
Visit Columbus is the destination marketing organization for Columbus and Bartholomew County, promoting the area as a welcoming destination for leisure travel, meetings, sports, group tours and events. Through marketing, partnerships and destination development, Visit Columbus works to strengthen the local visitor economy and enhance the community’s quality of place. columbus.in.us
About the City of Columbus
Columbus, Indiana, is a city of about fifty thousand people in south central Indiana and the seat of Bartholomew County. Known internationally for more than eighty years of civic investment in architecture, landscape, and public art, the City of Columbus works with residents, businesses, and community partners to sustain a downtown, parks, and public realm that serve the people who live and work there. Mary Ferdon is the city's thirty-eighth mayor. columbus.in.gov
