Prove It Summit
October 8–10
Prove It: A National Summit on Design Excellence as Civic Practice
The Commons
300 Washington Street
Columbus, Indiana
→ Attendance is by invitation only
Interested in participating in the Summit? Reach out to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections.
The Prove It Summit tests a single proposition:
Design excellence is a civic practice that can be defined, practiced, and measured by any community willing to do the work.
Over three days, five Indiana cities will put that claim to work on active public projects.
In 2026, The Crump Theatre was awarded a nearly $6.1 million READI 2.0 Arts & Culture funding grant from the State of Indiana to support its historic revitalization. This was the largest single arts and culture grant awarded in the State.
Learning from Columbus
Thursday October 8
The Summit begins with a welcome lunch and introductions to the participating delegation cities, followed by walking presentations with Mayor Mary Ferdon at Columbus’ Riverfront and The Crump Theatre.
Interested in participating in the Summit? Reach out to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections.
Attendance is by invitation only
Mayor
Mayor Mary Ferdon
Columbus, Indiana
Mary Ferdon is the thirty-eighth mayor of Columbus, in office since January 1, 2024. Before her election she spent eight years as the city's Executive Director of Administration and Community Development, working with 450 employees to deliver streets, parks, animal care, and public services across more than one thousand acres of parkland. Earlier she taught at IUPUC, worked at Heritage Fund, the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, and led Volunteers in Medicine. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's in urban administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She and her husband Steve have lived in Columbus for more than thirty years. Columbus hosts the Summit and the first Learning Partnership visit.
Angie Nelson Deuitch is a sixth-generation resident of Michigan City and its mayor since January 1, 2024. She previously served two terms on the Michigan City Common Council and brings more than twenty-five years of leadership in the telecommunications, utility, and manufacturing sectors. Her administration focuses on housing, infrastructure, neighborhood engagement, and economic development that reaches all residents. She holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Florida A&M University and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University, and her board service includes the Unity Foundation, United Way of LaPorte County, the Michigan City Economic Development Corporation, and the Urban League of Northwest Indiana.
Mayor
Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch Michigan City, Indiana
Mayor Mike Pavey
Rushville, Indiana
Mayor Dan Ridenour
Muncie, Indiana
Mike Pavey has served as mayor of Rushville since January 2012, following twelve years on the city council, eight of them as its president. Trained in architectural technology and engineering at Purdue University, he spent eighteen years as a project engineer before taking office. As mayor he has overseen the largest set of infrastructure projects in the city's history and helped three of Rushville's four largest employers expand. He revived Heart of Rushville, the city's Indiana Main Street program, and helped build the Riverside Park Amphitheater and its free summer concert series, which Ball State University's Building Better Communities recognized with a Primacy of Place award in 2014. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute.
Dan Ridenour is mayor of Muncie, elected after four years on the Muncie City Council. He came to public office from thirty years in banking and finance, where he served as a regional manager for three banks, and he is the author of three books on credit scoring. A longtime community volunteer, he has worked on programs ranging from home repair for low-income seniors to kindergarten readiness in Muncie Community Schools. He and his wife Sherry have four children and four grandchildren.
Mayor
Mayor
Mayor Brandon Sakbun
Terre Haute, Indiana
Brandon Sakbun was born and raised in Terre Haute and became its youngest elected mayor in November 2023, at twenty-seven. He earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and a Master of Public Affairs from the O'Neill School. Commissioned in the U.S. Army in 2018, he served nearly five years on active duty, including two deployments with the 75th Ranger Regiment, and reached the rank of captain before joining the Indiana National Guard. His administration focuses on quality-of-life amenities, infrastructure, neighborhood parks, the regional economy, and public safety. He and his wife Paiton have two daughters.
Mayor
The Prove It Summit keynote event will take place at The Commons, Columbus’ downtown community and event space. Owned by the City of Columbus, The Commons is home to an indoor playground, restaurants, flexible gathering spaces, and Jean Tinguely’s kinetic sculpture Chaos I. The current building, designed by Koetter Kim with CSO Architects and completed in 2011, preserves the steel superstructure of César Pelli’s original 1973 design for the former mall.
Summit Keynote
5:30 pm Thursday October 8 at The Commons
Join two national design leaders whose work reaches from some of America’s largest cities to its smallest towns and Tribal communities for a conversation about the places we build, the people they serve, and what it takes to create lasting value.
The program begins with a welcome from Mayor Mary Ferdon and Tracy Haddad, Board Chair of Landmark Columbus Foundation, with remarks from U.S. Senator Todd Young. Courtney Spearman and Maurice Cox will deliver keynote presentations, followed by a conversation moderated by Daniel Luis Martinez.
It’s free to attend the Prove It Summit Keynote → Register now!
Keynote Speaker
Maurice Cox
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Urban Planner
Maurice D. Cox is the Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where his work merges architecture, design, and politics in pursuit of equitable urban development. He served as Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, where he co-authored neighborhood framework plans credited with helping reverse a 70-year population decline, and later as Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, where he led the INVEST South/West initiative to revitalize ten neighborhoods. His earlier public service includes terms as Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Design Director at the National Endowment for the Arts under two presidents. He has taught at Syracuse, the University of Virginia, Tulane, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Todd Young
Indianapolis, Indiana
U.S. Senator
Courtney Spearman serves as Fieldwork Program Manager for Building Common Ground, a collective supporting rural and Tribal communities. She leads Fieldwork, a national program offering free design and project-development support to rural and Tribal cultural organizations, engaging a cohort of 20 communities in planning civic and cultural spaces rooted in local context. Her work brings a multidisciplinary approach to rural revitalization, collaborating across arts and design nonprofits, landscape architecture firms, and community organizations, and draws on more than a decade overseeing the design field nationwide at the National Endowment for the Arts. Spearman earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Arts in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Art History from Rice University.
Daniel Luis Martinez
Indianapolis, Indiana
Educator
Todd Young is the senior United States Senator from Indiana, serving since 2017. Before the Senate, he represented Indiana's 9th congressional district in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2017, and he has since built a reputation as a bipartisan problem-solver, playing a key role in passing the CHIPS and Science Act to expand domestic semiconductor production, alongside work on veterans' affairs and affordable housing. Earlier in his career, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, discharged as a captain. Young graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy, and also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the School of Advanced Study in London, and a law degree from Indiana University.
Keynote Speaker
Daniel Luis Martinez is Program Director, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Professor with tenure at Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Rural Engagement. Daniel is an architectural designer, educator, and co-founder of LAA Office: a multi-disciplinary design studio that explores the intersection of landscape, art, and architecture. His research and creative work investigate the transformation of undervalued sites through a synthesis of public art and public space design. He has been included in Art Omi's Architecture Residency in New York for 2022, was named an Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellow in 2019 and received an AIA Henry Adams Medal in 2012. Daniel has worked at leading architectural firms, including Allied Works and Weiss/Manfredi, and his writing has been published in notable architectural journals, including Mas Context, San Rocco, Clog, and Drawing Matter.
Keynote Remarks
Keynote Moderator
Courtney Spearman
Washington, D.C.
Design, Arts, Cultural Advocate
Summit Working Sessions
Friday October 9 at The Commons
Mayor-led delegations from Michigan City, Muncie, Rushville, and Terre Haute join Columbus to work on live civic projects with a national design faculty in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public land, and rural design. Columbus is the shared reference: a city that has been asking the design excellence question of itself for more than eighty years, and is still learning.
What each city brings: On Friday, each mayor-led delegation presents one live civic project for thirty minutes, followed by a discussion with the design faculty and other delegations in the room.
The Summit launches the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership, a two-year effort led by the Civic Design Institute in partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Arts Commission.
Interested in participating in the Summit? Reach out to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections.
Attendance is by invitation only
Gerardo Garcia
Chicago, Illinois
Gerardo Garcia is a licensed architect and urban designer who leads The Urbanism Bureau, a Chicago planning, urban design, and development advisory practice built on the premise that design excellence is for all. He led Chicago's planning and urban design initiatives in city government with an emphasis on public-interest design work that supported more than $14 billion in economic development through community engagement and design excellence. He received the Chicago Mayor's Medal of Honor for INVEST South/West, the APA Illinois Strategic Plan Award for the Soul City Corridor framework, and was named to Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40.
Design Faculty
David Dowell
Manhatten, Kansas
David Dowell is Professor of Practice at Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design and a former partner at El Dorado, the integrated architecture, urban design, curatorial, education, and fabrication practice in Kansas City. He brings more than twenty-five years of architectural practice across scales, building types, and places, with a sustained focus on culture, education, and public well-being. He has taught graduate studios at the Technical University in Dresden, the University of Kansas, Washington University in St. Louis, and Kansas State University, where he founded the Design+Make Studio in 2011. His teaching and practice share one premise: architects must fully engage the craft of building for the work to carry meaning.
Design Faculty
Eric Lucas
Chicago, Illinois
Eric Lucas is CEO and Principal of MKSK, a planning, urban design, and landscape architecture practice with studios across the Midwest and South. A landscape architect by training and raised in Indiana, he has directed landscape and planning projects in more than twenty states and on three continents over thirty years. Since returning to the Midwest in 2007 after a decade on the East Coast, he has concentrated on revitalizing communities through public space design, walkable urbanism, and strategic reinvestment, working closely with residents, institutions, and public-private partners. He champions MKSK's Community Impact Studio, which provides pro bono design services to under-resourced communities.
Design Faculty
Jamie Simone
Chicago, Illinois
Jamie Simone is Chicago and Illinois Program Director for Trust for Public Land, the national nonprofit that creates parks and protects land for people. She played a central role in delivering The 606, the three-mile elevated park on Chicago's former Bloomingdale Trail that opened in 2015, and has led TPL's Chicago work on neighborhood parks and on parks that manage stormwater. Before joining TPL she worked in urban design at Farr Associates and as program manager for the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. She holds a master's in urban policy and planning from the University of Illinois Chicago and an undergraduate degree in social work.
Design Faculty
Representatives from all fifteen of Indiana's READI regions are invited, so what the five cities learn reaches the rest of the state from day one.
Columbus Region 12
Michigan City Region 9
Muncie Region 3
Rushville Region 1
Terre Haute Region 15
Ellipsis by AD—WO was created for the 2024–25 Exhibit Columbus cycle, Yes And, as a J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize installation. Located on the former Irwin Block site, the project transforms a vacant downtown lot into a gathering space while exploring omitted Black and Indigenous histories.
What Was Learned and What Comes Next
Saturday October 10 at The Commons
The final morning begins at Ellipsis, the Exhibit Columbus installation by AD—WO on Fifth Street, before returning to The Commons for breakfast with Eric Ashby of the Indiana Arts Commission and remarks from partner organizations.
The morning looks back at ten years of Exhibit Columbus and ahead to the civic questions shaping its next cycle, with conversations alongside the design faculty, resource presentations, and a closing session with Trinity Simons Wagner of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design.
The Prove It Summit concludes at midday, with an optional lunch at Luciana’s Mexican Restaurant at The Commons.
Attendance is by invitation only
Resource Presenter
Bridget Anderson
Solsberry, Indiana
Bridget Anderson is Indiana Director at Patronicity, the civic crowdfunding platform that pairs community donations with matching grants for placemaking projects in cities and towns across the country. Since joining in 2018 she has led CreatINg Places, Indiana's crowdgranting program with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and supported programs that stabilize small businesses. She brings more than six years with statewide and national nonprofits and six years serving elected officials, and holds a degree in political science from Indiana University.
Partner
Eric Ashby
Washington, D.C.
Eric Ashby is Director of Programs at the Indiana Arts Commission, where he sets the strategic direction of the agency's programs, grants, and services and works to make the arts relevant and accessible across Indiana, with particular attention to rural communities. He holds a bachelor's degree in arts management, a Master of Public Affairs, and a master's in arts administration, all from Indiana University, and supported development of the Community Arts and Culture Guide with IU's Center for Rural Engagement. The Indiana Arts Commission is a partner in the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership.
Resource Presenter
Brian Blackford
Indianapolis, Indiana
Brian Blackford has served as Executive Director of the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University's Miller College of Business since 2014. Based in Indianapolis, he works with Indiana communities on community engagement, civic design, arts and culture development, tourism, and action-based planning. His earlier roles include Indiana Landmarks, the Indiana Office of Tourism Development, and the Indiana State Fair Commission. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Ball State and has taught heritage tourism at IUPUI.
Trinity Simons Wagner has led the Mayors' Institute on City Design since 2012. MICD, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, has since 1986 taught mayors to act as the chief urban designers of their cities. In her tenure she has worked directly with more than five hundred mayors and led more than seventy-five Institute sessions connecting mayors with design leaders on their cities' most pressing planning and design challenges. She holds a Master in City Planning from MIT.
Resource Presenter
Trinity Simons-Wagner
Washington, D.C.
Partner
Heidi Young
Indianapolis, Indiana
Heidi Young represents the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the state's lead economic development agency and a partner in the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership. Her work at IEDC centers on regional development and redevelopment, including the READI program that is driving Indiana's investment in quality of place.