"With|Standing"
“With|Standing”
Episodes
From bustling North Columbus to quiet Kings Mills outside of Cincinnati, from Northeast Ohio’s Cleveland and Oberlin to “The Glass Capital of the World” Toledo, join us as we uncover the stories of Ohioans’ creativity, aspiration and innovation. Built structures across our state — ranging from schools to warehouses to factories — not only reflect our past and present but also point a beacon of hope and new possibility into the future.
About this project
With|Standing is a mini-documentary series and exhibition featuring six architectural sites of transformation and adaptive reuse from across the state of Ohio. Through these sites, we examine how Ohioans are re-imagining the future of our state’s built heritage shaped by the forces of history, industry, migration and more. The title of the series refers to the compound Old English words of wið “against” and standan “to stand.” On the one hand, how do these buildings change “with” the context around them? And on the other hand, what piece of these buildings persevere, “standing” with new meaning through fluxes of function and cultural shifts?
Public Exhibition
Our public exhibition of With|Standing was available in the Fall of 2025. The exhibition was located in the gallery space in the Main Library. Thank you for your support!
Enjoy a preview of the exhibit with these photos and video (from WTOL) from our grand opening and public screening held on October 17, 2025.
This project took nearly two years and the minds and hearts of dozens of people to complete. We hope you enjoy experiencing it as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Conceptualization
Midstory
Project Lead
Ruth Chang
Exhibit Design
Ruth Chang
Samuel Chang
Editorial Lead
Logan Sander
Production Lead
Samuel Chang
Film & Animation
Samuel Chang
Dea Kukeli
Evan Blenko
Writing
Celia Johnson
Desiree Luo
Janek Schaller
Design & Graphics
Ruth Chang
Maps & Data
Caixia Cui
Anna DiAsio
Yitong Jiang
Site Research
Isobel Bartels
Brynn Drabek
Quan Harris-Holley
Arjun Jayaraman
Sandra Salib
Rachel Yoon
Preliminary Research
Simeon Brown
Caitlin Cooper
Jason Mecchi
Vitus Larrieu
Abigail Rabieh
Annie Wang
Fact Checking
Terri Briskey
Web Design
Celia Johnson
Alex Lim
Iconography
Joshua Repp
Engineering Support
Jason Owens
Special thanks to the Toledo Lucas County Public Library for hosting this exhibit.
With|Standing is funded in part by the America 250-Ohio Commission and the Ohio Arts Council. This project is also supported in part by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated by the City of Toledo and the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by The Arts Commission. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the America 250-Ohio Commission, Ohio Arts Council, The Arts Commission, the City of Toledo and Lucas County.
Midstory is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization with the mission to progress the narrative of the Midwest through multimedia storytelling, young people programming and solutions-oriented research. As a voice out of the Midwest, we inform, interpret and inspire in and for the Midwest and believe that our region’s challenges can be our greatest asset to drive renewed interest and human capital into post-industrial cities.