Department of Design Chair, Professor Munch and the Conversations with Trees design team — Peter Chan, Mila Gajić, Ben McCorkle, Noor Murteza, Taylor Olsen, and Michael Hardesty — were invited to attend the opening reception of Minding & Mending Our Ways: Moving Toward an Intentional Future on April 4 at the Wayne and Geraldine Kuhn Fine Arts Gallery, located on the OSU Marion campus.

Minding & Mending Our Ways is the second installment of the Ohio State Marion Sustainability Gallery exhibition series. It encourages reflection on the natural world and invites the campus and local community to consider more intentional ways of engaging with it.

This year’s exhibition features Conversations with Trees: Connecting the Human Spirit with Nature through Image and Story — an interactive display featuring students' photographic explorations in Peter Chan’s Visual Communication Design course, along with an augmented reality experience co-created with the university’s Emerging Technology Studio. The project spotlights the historic trees on the OSU Oval, using image and narrative to foster a deeper connection between people and nature.

Additional displays highlight student research, class projects, and community initiatives that explore sustainability issues in Marion and beyond. Opening remarks at the event were delivered by John Maharry, Assistant Dean of Academic Opportunities ; Leslie Beyer-Hermsen, Assistant Dean of Administration at OSU Marion; and invited guests from the Sustainability Institute and the Ohio Division of Forestry.

The exhibition will be on display in Ohio State Marion's Kuhn Gallery, located on the first floor of Morrill Hall, through early September.