NLI 25th Anniversary Exhibition – Rooting Childhood in Nature
The NLI 25th Anniversary Exhibition, held October 21-31, 2025, in the Brooks Hall Gallery at NC State University’s College of Design, beautifully showcased 25 years of impact advancing children’s health, learning, and joy through nature.
Through stories of community co-design, research, education, professional development, resource creation, and communication, the exhibition traced NLI’s evolution and enduring influence in shaping outdoor play and learning environments.
Visitors explored the people, partnerships, and projects that have defined NLI’s mission—designing for a world where every child experiences the benefits of daily contact with nature.
Thank you to all who visited and celebrated with us. Here’s to the next 25 years of design innovation and collaboration in the global children and nature movement!
Stay tuned for our upcoming digital exhibition display!
A glimpse of the 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Rooting Childhood in Nature.
Event Highlights
2 of 14 research, policy, and professional development publications on display.
Nilda Cosco shares the plant “habitat”, part of the publication display, with Rachael Wooten.
Kim Shaw and Alberta Forney, longtime NLI Collaborators, discuss the exhibition with other guests.
Matt Urbanski and Maria Bellalta share memories of their graduate student days at Harvard with Soolyeon Cho.
Longtime colleagues and speakers Cheryl Charles and Cathy Jordan explore the exhibition.
