When the doors to a new Ohio Agriculture Center opened at the 2026 Ohio State Fair, visitors stepped into more than a new building. They stepped into experiences designed to tell the story of Ohio agriculture, where it has been, where it is today and where it is headed next.
Exhibit Concepts was proud to play a role in bringing that vision to life through two distinct experiences: Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s 75,000-square-foot imAGine AG exhibit and the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Ohio Proud Showcase.
Both spaces represented years of vision, planning and collaboration among organizations committed to Ohio agriculture. For our team, they also represented the kind of project we value most—one built on partnership.
A New Destination for Agriculture at the Ohio State Fair
The new Ohio Agriculture Center, presented by Nationwide, debuted during the 2026 Ohio State Fair as part of a broader investment in the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds.
The vision was ambitious and created a destination capable of connecting thousands of fairgoers with Ohio agriculture in ways that were approachable, memorable and engaging.
Ohio Farm Bureau and the Ohio Department of Agriculture partnered with agricultural organizations, the Ohio Exposition Commission and The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences to help bring that destination to life. According to Ohio Farm Bureau, imAGine Ag represented the largest investment in agricultural consumer outreach ever featured at the Ohio State Fair.
For Exhibit Concepts, bringing these experiences to life meant transforming ideas, stories and educational goals into engaging environments built for thousands of fairgoers.
imAGine Ag: Making Agriculture an Experience
At 75,000 square feet, imAGine Ag was designed to give visitors an immersive, hands-on understanding of modern agriculture.
Throughout the experience, fairgoers could discover how agriculture has evolved, interact with Ohio farmers, and explore topics ranging from weather and animal care to crop management and agricultural technology.
Individual educational exhibits brought those stories to life in completely different ways. Visitors could explore a year in the life of Ohio farm families through Storied Seasons, learn about precision agriculture while flying small drones in Crop Invaders, discover the scale of crop production through Harvest Hero, explore the impact of weather in the Weather Wonder Lab, and interact with agricultural facts from across the state through Buckeye State AgQuest.
That diversity was part of what made the project so exciting, and so complex.
Working alongside Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and Shift-ology, which led theme design, creative direction and planning, Exhibit Concepts transformed the creative vision into a physical, interactive environment capable of delivering those experiences at scale. Exhibit Concept’s scope included engineering, exhibit fabrication, interactive integration, logistics and installation, bringing together multiple disciplines to execute the experience from concept through opening day.
Every element ultimately needed to do more than look good. It needed to support the larger goal of helping visitors connect with the people, technology and ideas shaping agriculture across Ohio.
Ohio Proud: Celebrating What’s Grown and Made Here
Within the Ohio Agriculture Center, the Ohio Proud Showcase shared another side of Ohio’s agricultural story, highlighting the products, people and programs that support agriculture across the state.
Working closely with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Exhibit Concepts brought the 3,000-square-foot exhibit to life as ODA’s first dedicated home at the Ohio State Fairgrounds.
An important part of the vision was helping visitors better understand the breadth of the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s work. The interactive exhibit made ODA’s wide-ranging responsibilities more visible and approachable, from supporting farmers and promoting Ohio-made products to food safety, consumer protection, animal and plant health, inspections and licensing.
The resulting space combined education, exploration and hospitality. Fairgoers could experience live cooking demonstrations featuring local ingredients, learn about specialty crops grown throughout Ohio and visit the Ohio Proud General Store to discover products made closer to home.
Like imAGine Ag, creating the Ohio Proud Showcase required thoughtful collaboration from initial concepts through final installation. Working with the Ohio Department of Agriculture and project partners, the team transformed the vision into an educational exhibit that felt welcoming, distinctly Ohio and ready to serve as a new destination for fairgoers.
Partnership Behind the Scenes
Experiences of this scale aren’t created by one organization, one discipline, or one great idea.
They’re built through partnerships.
Throughout the planning and execution process, Exhibit Concepts worked closely with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Ohio Department of Agriculture and Shift-ology, alongside the many agricultural organizations, stakeholders and project partners contributing to the overall initiative.
Our team also partnered with NextLab to bring the interactive elements within the exhibits to life, adding another layer of engagement to the stories being told throughout the spaces.
Behind the scenes, Exhibit Concepts’ designers, account and project teams, production specialists, fabricators, logistics teams and installation crews worked together to turn plans into physical experiences.
From Vision to Opening Day
There is a unique moment with every experiential project when months of drawings, meetings, samples, revisions, fabrication and planning finally become a real place filled with real people.
At the Ohio State Fair, that moment was especially meaningful.
Governor Mike DeWine has described the new Ohio Agriculture Center as a showcase for the state’s agricultural industry, a place where visitors could experience the many ways agriculture touches their everyday lives. The larger redevelopment of the fairgrounds represents an unprecedented $400 million investment supported by the Ohio General Assembly.
And fairgoers responded.
Post-Fair reporting showed that nearly 100,000 people visited imAGine Ag during the 2026 Ohio State Fair, providing a powerful measure of the reach and impact of an experience designed to connect the public with Ohio Agriculture.
Seeing visitors walk into imAGine Ag and the Ohio Proud Showcase reinforced why this work matters. These interactive, educational exhibits were built to spark curiosity, create conversations and give Ohio agriculture a place to tell its story for years to come.
For Exhibit Concepts, being entrusted to help turn that vision into reality was both an exciting challenge and an incredible privilege.
We’re grateful to the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Shift-ology, NextLab and the many partners and stakeholders who trusted our team and collaborated alongside us throughout the process.
The doors swung open. The spaces came to life. And we’re proud to have played a part in creating two new places where Ohio’s agricultural story could be experienced, explored and celebrated.
