Carla Clark | For The Republic Felicia Garr, manager Umoja, and students dance to the music at the Joy Ride installation on top of the Jackson Street Parking Garage during the Umoja, Council for Youth Development and Tu Futuro students special walking tour of the city’s architecture, select installations from Exhibit Columbus, and portions of the Black Heritage Trail, downtown Columbus, Ind, Tuesday, September 9, 2025.
After two years of events and projects, Exhibit Columbus’ “Yes And” exhibition is drawing to a close this Sunday.
The exhibition, the fifth one produced by Exhibit Columbus, welcomed 12 new site-responsive installations to locations across downtown Columbus. Installations ranged in size and scale from the “Inside Out” dollhouse at the Bartholomew County Public Library to “Lift’s” soaring fabric in First Christian Church’s courtyard.
Four J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients, six University Design Research Fellows, two Design Education teams and Communication Design team Sing-Sing were tasked with saying “yes, and,” an improv theatre technique, to Columbus’ pre-existing spaces.
In doing so, they expanded upon these spaces and added to their legacy, according to Exhibit Columbus. Community members were invited to view and respond to these expanded spaces through events like the exhibit’s Opening Weekend and workshops, or simply visit the installations as they walked through downtown.
The exhibit’s Opening Weekend, in fact, was the best they’ve ever had, said Richard McCoy, Landmark Columbus executive director.
“I think (the cycle) was extraordinary, just the opportunity to produce two years of events and projects with Exhibit Columbus is extraordinary and we feel privileged to be able to do it,” McCoy said. “And we’re able to do it because we have a really dedicated staff, we have a dedicated board of directors and a lot of very generous supporters who give their resources and time and talent.”
In creating “Yes And,” McCoy said they intentionally sought out that theme to put positivity in the air and to say “yes, and.” McCoy said they felt they created several new civic spaces, but like art, it was unclear how the public would use these new installations. He said the public responded to them in both intentional and unintentional ways.
For example, Adaptive Operations’ “Accessing Nostalgia” installation at the Crump Theatre became the site of Columbus’ first Oktoberfest last month. Studio Barnes’ “Joy Riding” installation, which consists of a large sound system on the roof of the Jackson Street Parking Garage, became host to “The Life of a Showgirl” listening parties.
“I’ve heard a lot of people have been playing their favorite music, which is basically the goal of it,” Studio Barnes director Germane Barnes said. “A lot of things at the studio that we do is all about giving back and making sure the community is at the center of everything, and them being allowed to play their music they wanted to play was absolutely a part of that.”
Some of the installations have held up better than others, such as the “PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS” installation at Central Middle School, which McCoy said is ready to come down. Following opening weekend, University Design Research Fellow Sarah Aziz’s installation “A View of the World from Indiana” at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church was removed due to late and unapproved changes.
The installation featured 12 “bathtub Madonna” shrines with a wooden figure of a Midwestern architect, depicted with minimal clothing. McCoy said that was their first time having to remove an installation out of the 75 temporary art and architecture installations they have exhibited.
Even still, he said they invited Aziz to come back and participate in their University Design Research Fellowship Colloquium, where they had an open conversation about the project. The removal also allowed them to create a more meaningful relationship with St. Peter’s leadership, he said.
“… we didn’t remove Sarah Aziz from Exhibit Columbus, she’s a part of it,” McCoy said. “And you know, I think we really look at that as we really saw it as a way to think about what we’re doing and why it matters and I hope that she is also on a journey to figure out what it means to make work in the public realm and what it means to make work on other people’s property.”
The feedback process will begin soon with the seven curatorial partners and the public soon to find what did and didn’t work with this cycle. McCoy said the feedback they have received so far has been mostly positive, with First Christian Church, one of their regular collaborators, saying how much the “Lift” installation reverberated around their congregation and where it is going.
McCoy said they will continue to work on ways they can make Exhibit Columbus’ work more understandable and impactful with the community and their partners, but he believes everyone remembers that Exhibit Columbus does this for a very positive reason and provides an extraordinary 24/7 cultural experience.
“There are very few things in downtown Columbus that you can do of this quality that are open 24 hours a day and offered for free,” McCoy said. “And so even if people have complaints or feedback or things that they think we can do better, we take all of that, we take it in, but we also move forward with a lot of grace because of what we’re producing is a gift to the community.”
