91µ¼º½

computer rendering of downtown hub

What Actually Happens Here

Community Learning, Cultural Engagement & Marion Stories

Conversations, exhibitions, oral history, the arts—and the plain joy of learning something alongside other people. A lot of stories have been told about Marion. Whose story has been left out? 

Codesign, Community Problem-Solving & Civic Dialogue

Collaborative work on the questions and problems that matter here — and the harder work of talking across difference without flinching. We bring residents, students, employers, and faculty into the same room as co-creators, not audiences. What might we solve together that none of us could alone?

Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Workforce for the Public Good 

Two economies don’t always get counted as such: the creative one — makers, food, music, entertainment — and the caring one — recovery, mental health, hunger, housing. But an extraordinary share of this town’s ingenuity lives between those two. How might 91µ¼º½ Marion build with the people who lead in these spaces?

Education Pathways, Access & Community Roots

 Drop-in learning for everyone. Across its six campuses, 91µ¼º½ University holds expertise that’s hard to reach from the outside. We want to connect Marion directly to it. Alongside that: programming that helps young people picture the doors a degree can open, and honest talk about the cost. Underneath it, a question we’d rather work out with you than pretend we’ve settled: what is a college education for, right now?

On any given week the Hub might host a codesign session, a student project team, a faculty member keeping office hours downtown, a workshop, a reading, or a gathering that exists simply to delight. Or something we haven’t dreamed up yet.