New Middles: From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City? (Opening Day)

On Saturday, August 21, Exhibit Columbus will open to the public with introductions and conversations by the curators and participants, tours, and live music in Mill Race Park. Exhibit Columbus commissions some of the most creative minds in architecture, design, and art to create new works in dialogue with the iconic buildings, landscapes, and public art of Columbus.

Opening Day will enliven downtown Columbus, as it celebrates the city’s architecture and design legacy with site-specific installations, photography, and graphic identity and wayfinding. This weekend is the only opportunity during the exhibition’s three-month run to see the exhibition alongside all the architects, landscape architects, artists and designers who created the installations, as well as Columbus residents and visitors from around the world.

As you stroll around viewing the installations or between the Exhibition Conversations session at First Christian Church and later at Mill Race Park, enjoy music from DJ Carlos Ramirez as he plays sets on the Plaza incorporating Latin, electronic, and top 40 music from 4–6pm.

All Opening Day events are free and open to the public. Click here for a complete list of the day's events with links to register!

New Middles: From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City? on view August 21–November 28, 2021 in Columbus, Indiana. The 2021 Exhibition is powered by support from Cummins Inc. Sign up for our newsletter for latest news and events.

Exhibit Columbus is also excited to host their one-of-a-kind Preview Party under the stars at Mill Race Park on Friday, August 20, presented by MyTruAdvantage, a SIHO product. This is an extraordinary evening of food, libations, and live music, and also a chance to meet the 2021 Exhibit Columbus participants, including architects, designers, and artists, and Columbus residents and visitors from around the world. Join us the following day on Saturday for Opening Day, a day-long series of free events around downtown, presented by ESL Spectrum.

To reserve your ticket for the Exhibit Columbus Preview Party on August 20 click here.

*Please contact the Exhibit Columbus team at [email protected] with questions related to the Preview Party.

Message from Exhibit Columbus Curators

What makes Columbus’ design history so unique is the investment in architecture as a social project. We are thrilled to join the Exhibit Columbus team and the Columbus community to shape conversations, installations, and research honoring this past, while recognizing the complex social and ecological issues facing American towns and cities at this very moment. And it is through architecture and design—through the symposium and exhibition—that we hope to explore meaningful and necessary ways forward.

— Iker Gil and Mimi Zeiger, 2020–21 Exhibit Columbus Curators

To learn more about Exhibit Columbus' events and exhibition schedule click here.