Landmark Columbus, formed in 2015 as a caretaker of the city’s cultural and architectural heritage, has become its own free-standing, nonprofit entity now known as the Landmark Columbus Foundation.
The organization has been best known as the parent organization for Exhibit Columbus, the annual exploration of art and architecture that has re-energized the city’s design profile globally.
Landmark Columbus Foundation leaders released the information in low-key fashion after scrapping celebratory plans earlier this year just after the COVID-19 pandemic broke onto the scene.
This change moves Landmark Columbus out from under the umbrella of The Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.
A nine-member board of community stalwarts including Mayor Jim Lienhoop will oversee the foundation’s three programs:
Landmark Columbus, which most recently demonstrated its value when program leaders worked alongside experts to carefully remove graffiti from Henry Moore’s classic and valuable Large Arch sculpture after a vandalism spree.
Exhibit Columbus, the annual celebration of art and architecture that has further magnified the city’s architectural renown.
Columbus Design Institute, a technical service initiative that promotes the value of good design that built Columbus. It collaborates with partners through its design process to encourage meaningful investments in the sustainable and equitable development of communities.
More details of Exhibit Columbus’ changes will come via announcements expected this summer, according to Richard McCoy, Landmark Columbus Foundation’s executive director.
“This is a significant thing for Columbus,” McCoy said of the foundation’s formation. “We’ve had this awesome situation where we have been incubated within The Heritage Fund, and now we’ve been set up to grow (more).
“For us, there’s a lot of gratitude to so many people for helping get us to this point.”
McCoy explained part of the reasoning for the move.
“To become a stand-alone entity just gives us that much more flexibility and even more visibility,” he said.
The Heritage Fund will maintain a link, though, since fund President and Chief Executive Officer Tracy Souza is part of the Landmark Columbus Foundation board.
“It has grown up,” Souza said of the newly named foundation and its programs.
She mentioned that she sees Landmark Columbus’ work as pioneering.
“There’s not a literal road map to how you do this idea of progressive preservation,” Souza said. “We are creating kind of a uniquely Columbus model — and getting a lot of attention from other communities and also just from people who enjoy design.”
The new alignment includes new positions and promotions for staffers previously or currently affiliated exclusively with Exhibit Columbus. Besides McCoy as executive director of the foundation, posts include:
Ben Valentine, development and engagement manager, Landmark Columbus Foundation
Anne Surak, director, Exhibit Columbus
Hannah Brokenshire, associate director, Exhibit Columbus
Janice Shimizu, associate curator, Exhibit Columbus
Hadley Fruits, photographer, Landmark Columbus Foundation
Chris Merritt, project director, Columbus Design Institute
Longtime community leader Rick Johnson, president and CEO of Johnson Ventures Inc., will serve as president of the Landmark Columbus Foundation board.
He recalled being among an original group of leaders who listened to the original idea of Exhibit Columbus, realizing that it had to involve some substantial risk. “That initially seemed like a big step into the dark,” Johnson said.
But now, “I see this as more of a progression of the growth of the organization,” Johnson said. “It’s not really changing its mission.”
Johnson acknowledged that “Exhibit Columbus is definitely the showpiece of the organization.”
