UTK Tower: Marshall Prado, 2018–19 UDRF Fellow Executive Summary The Columbus, Indiana community continues to demonstrate that the best way to have an authentically great place to live is through the process of working together with shared values and clear goals. Engaging excellent designers and relying upon a thoughtful process to build new buildings, landscapes, artworks, or reuse existing ones is a key part of our history. After more than seventy-five years, this tradition has created what we hold dear today: an internationally-recognized collection of architecture, art, and design that has become a defining characteristic of the community and the core of this city’s identity. Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County launched Landmark Columbus Foundation (LCF) in 2015 as one of its key programs to ensure that Columbus’ traditions and investments in design excellence are well cared for and can remain a source of inspiration for future generations. With the support of many in this community and those around the state and country, Heritage Fund’s program quickly became a community asset making a big difference through Exhibit Columbus and many progressive preservation efforts. 1 Executive Summary Bartholomew County Courthouse: Isaac Hodgson, 1874 In late 2019 Heritage Fund supported the move of this program to become a stand alone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with the mission to care for, celebrate, and advance the cultural heritage of Columbus, Indiana. At the start of 2020, the inaugural Board of Directors of LCF met to move the mission forward, and with dedicated staff, volunteers, and collaborators, this organization has made great progress and is poised for continued success far beyond today. All recognize that this work is successful through the acknowledgment and appreciation of what and who came before us. LCF directs three locally-engaged and globally-connected programs that are interwoven in their impact and networks to sustain its mission: Landmark Columbus, Exhibit Columbus, and Columbus Design Institute. Major progress has been made in each area, for example on a Getty Foundation-funded conservation grant for North Christian Church, the launch of the third cycle of Exhibit Columbus, and by exploring design excellence with Indiana mayors. As we prepare for the county’s bicentennial celebrations, this organization is poised to continue making a big impact here and beyond, and with a supportive community, it will remain a critical part of this very special place. 2 3 Soft Civic: Bryony Roberts, 2018–19 Miller Prize Recipient Executive Director, Landmark Columbus Foundation My first public event in Columbus was in April of 2011 at the re-opening of the Commons when I made remarks about helping to restore the sculpture “Chaos No. 1” by artist Jean Tinguely. I was followed by a 12-year old student who had written the winning essay for the opportunity to “flip the switch” and bring that kinetic masterpiece back to its whirling existence. It felt like the entire community was there celebrating the moment. Ten years later as we distribute this, our first annual report from Landmark Columbus Foundation, I feel that same sense of community magic and support behind everything we do. Ours is an organization created to care for, celebrate, and advance the cultural heritage of this amazing place. The opportunity to work with such a dedicated board of directors, staff, volunteers, and collaborators to accomplish our work is singular and amazing. In just a few years, hundreds have helped build this organization into one that creates tremendous impact in our community and provides benefits that reach far beyond Bartholomew County. Landmark Columbus Foundation enjoys a strong alignment to Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, which allowed us to compete for and win a $3.4m grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. Over the next five years, this grant will transform our ability to collaborate with many others, and dramatically increase our impact across all of our program areas. It establishes Landmark Columbus Foundation as an anchor institution in our community, one that is able to sustain its mission well into the future. As we continue caring for what came before us, and dreaming about what is to come beyond, we do it with immense gratitude to those that have helped create and support this organization. I hope that you will read through our report and consider the work we have accomplished, even through the difficult times of 2020. Sincerely yours, Richard McCoy 4 Programs Landmark Columbus Foundation Landmark Columbus Foundation cares for, celebrates, and Landmark advances the cultural heritage of Columbus, Indiana. LCF is the community resource and thought leader for progressive Columbus preservation in Bartholomew County; an advocate and educator for and about cultural heritage; and a source of inspiration to Foundation advance design excellence for community benefit. To sustain its mission LCF directs three locally-engaged and globally- connected programs that are interwoven in their impact and Landmark networks: Landmark Columbus, Exhibit Columbus, and Columbus Columbus Design Institute. Exhibit Columbus Columbus Design Institute 6 7 Landmark Columbus: Purpose and Goals Landmark Columbus: Projects and Events Landmark Columbus is a progressive preservation effort Keeping it Modern at Conserving an Icon: Landmark North Christian Church Henry Moore’s Large Arch that assists in caring for buildings, landscapes, and art Landmark Columbus was awarded a Getty While COVID-19 began to tear through Foundation Keeping it Modern grant in late our community, a night of vandalism left in Bartholomew County. It advocates for and educates about 2019 to lead a multifaceted team to create this cherished sculpture defaced. Landmark a conservation management plan for North Columbus quickly mobilized to restore the these culturalC resourcesolumbus through research, conservation, Christian Church (Eero Saarinen, 1964). icon to its original state. Working closely with leading experts in and fundraising projects and events. In 2020 work was preservation, including J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize winner Bryony Roberts, Columbus Cultural Resource Inventory completed onFoundatio a number of key projectsn while the organization the results will be gathered into a detailed and Survey Project social, economic, and cultural study. In the summer of 2020 Landmark Columbus continued to expand its connections within the community. conducted a survey and inventory of 23 significant modern cultural resources in Save the Crump Theatre Bartholomew County, and then extrapolated Community Group Landmark those findings across 80 significant, modern When Crump’s New Theatre opened in1889, cultural resources. This work was supported it was the first stand-alone opera house in by the Cummins Foundation in an effort to Columbus. The Art Deco façade was designed understand the potential of a new preservation Columbus by architect Alden Merenda in 1941. Community tool for Bartholomew County: a Revolving dedication to the theater grew significantly Loan Fund. The ultimate goal of creating the with the 2019 Exhibit Columbus installation Revolving Loan Fund is to have all significant “Love Letter to the Crump,” by Borderless Studio. cultural resources well cared for into the In April 2019 the Crump was placed on Indiana foreseeable future. Exhibit Landmarks’ “Top 10 Most Endangered List” and Landmark Columbus continues to support the potential for it to be repurposed as a Columbus performing arts venue. Landmark Columbus work is aligned towards Columbus three main goals: Identify significant and priority cultural resources Design that are in threat and create projects and events that raise awareness for their current state and advocate for their proper care. Institute Create projects and events that inform audiences about the existence, significance, and condition of cultural resources, and inspire others to do the same. Leverage the Landmark Columbus Foundation network to assist owners and managers in caring 8 for cultural resources. 9 First Christian Church: Eliel Saarinen, 1942 10 11 Exhibit Columbus: Purpose and Goals Exhibit Columbus: New Middles, 2020–21 Cycle Curatorial Fellows In our third cycle of programming we have Exhibit Columbus is an exploration of architecture, art, continued to evolve and grow Exhibit Columbus. Iker Gil is a Chicago-based architect, editor, Landmark Now with a dedicated director and a curatorial and curator. He is the director of MAS Studio, design, and community that activates the design legacy of fellowship designed to grow new and diverse a collaborative architecture and design firm voices in every cycle, this project has a renewed as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Columbus, Indiana. It creates a two-year cycle of programming sense of relevance and a refined purpose. the design journal MAS Context. He teaches The curatorial theme for this cycle of Exhibit that uses thisC contextolumbus to convene conversations around architecture studios at the School of the Art Columbus, New Middles, will re-define and re- Institute of Chicago and, since 2019, he is the envision heartland geography, seeing it as a executive director of the SOM Foundation. innovative ideas and commissions site-responsive installations rich, plural ecology centered on the Mississippi Gil has collaborated with architects, artists, Watershed. It shows middle cities are connected in a free, public exhibition.