Yes And: Miller Prize Conversation with Studio Cooke John

Join 2024-25 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipient Nina Cooke John of Studio Cooke John in conversation with special guest Julia van den Hout, who is the founding principal of Original Copy and Senior Architecture Curator at Art Omi. Hosted at First Christian Church, this conversation will be opened with a poetry reading by Indiana Author Award Honoree Rosalie Moffett.

A reception with Nina and Julia will take place at 6:30 pm, and the conversation will begin around 6:45 pm, with time for questions to follow. Lift is one of the 13 installations in the 2025 Exhibit Columbus Exhibition, Yes And.

About Miller Prize Conversations

Landmark Columbus Foundation will host the Exhibit Columbus J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Conversations in collaboration with Indiana University's J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program and Indiana Humanities.

Each conversation will begin with a reading from an Indiana poet. Then, the Miller Prize Recipient and a special guest will engage in a moderated open discussion about their previous work and practice, and how it relates to their Exhibit Columbus Installation as part of the 2025 exhibition Yes And.

Guests are invited to arrive early for a reception featuring the Miller Prize Recipient and a special guest.

About the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize

The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize honors two great patrons of community, architecture, art, and design. J. Irwin Miller was a community leader in Columbus with a national reputation in business and activism. Irwin and his wife Xenia, helped bring twentieth-century architectural masterpieces to Columbus through public-private coalitions, today known as the “Columbus Way.”

Now in its 10th year, the Miller Prize brings architectural excellence fostered by the Millers into dialogue with the best of twenty-first-century art and design, making it relevant to new audiences. By collaborating with architects, artists, and designers, the Millers’ lifelong effort was to help make Columbus the best possible community of its size. Since 2016, Exhibit Columbus has recognized 19 studios with this distinction.

About the J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program at Indiana University

Artistic experimentation and architectural design flourish simultaneously at Indiana University’s NAAB-accredited J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program. Our unique curricular model is rooted in hands-on making and engages with the ecological, material, social, and theoretical context of contemporary practice. We are located in the heart of downtown Columbus, Indiana where an extensive architectural legacy is at our doorstep and serves as a living case study in design excellence. Students and faculty are vested in the city’s evolution through community partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and design-build initiatives. We also foster a global perspective through the Nomadic Studio, which provides funded opportunities to live and learn in culturally vibrant and active urban centers.

About the Indiana Authors Awards 

The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards honor the best books written by Indiana authors. Awarded every two years, they celebrate Indiana writers, shine a light on the Hoosier state’s literary community and deepen connections between Indiana writers and readers. They were established in 2009 as a vision of Eugene and Marilyn Glick and are a component of Indiana Humanities’ rich and diverse literary programming. 

About Indiana Humanities   

Indiana Humanities sparks curiosity, connects people, and explores the human experience through programs, grants, and storytelling. Learn more at www.IndianaHumanities.org.  

Studio Cooke John is a multidisciplinary design studio founded by Nina Cooke John that values placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment. Collaborations with clients yield insights that inform how we transform spaces within the home and the public realm alongside a network of craftsmen, fabricators, and consultants. What emerges are spaces tailored to each client’s needs, revealing elements of serendipity and surprise that last a lifetime. Born in Jamaica, Nina has always been inspired by the art of transforming everyday hardships and limitations into innovative solutions through multiple spheres of life. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. Studio Cooke John’s team also includes Druva Lakshminarayanan.

Julia van den Hout is an editor and curator specializing in architecture and design. She is the founding principal of Original Copy, a New York-based editorial and curatorial studio established in 2014. She is also Senior Architecture Curator at Art Omi, a 120-acre sculpture and architecture park in Upstate New York.

Previously, she was Press Director at Steven Holl Architects, where she led communications for a range of international projects, and she was a founding editor of CLOG, a journal known for its timely, thematic deep-dives into issues shaping contemporary architecture.

Originally from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Julia holds a BA from New York University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts.

Rosalie Moffett is the author of the poetry collections Making a Living (Milkweed Editions, 2025), Nervous System (Ecco, 2019), which was chosen by Monica Youn for the National Poetry Series Prize and listed by the New York Times as a New and Notable book, and June in Eden (OSU Press, 2017). She has been awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, POETRY, New England Review, and Kenyon Review, among others. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Indiana, and the senior poetry editor for the Southern Indiana Review.

Info: Enjoy light refreshments with Nina Cooke John, Julia van den Hout, and Rosalie Moffett.

Info: Poetry reading by Rosalie Moffett, a moderated discussion with Nina Cooke John and Julia van den Hout, and time for community questions.

Host or Publisher Exhibit Columbus