About Impact Exhibit
An emerging exhibition platform from Parsons School of Design.
Conceived, built, and installed by students working across disciplines, it brings physical and digital works from across the school to major international design events. The inaugural edition launches in 2026 at Salone Satellite in Milan and NYCxDesign in New York.
The platform is rooted in a cross-disciplinary investigation into how spatial atmosphere, craft, and material systems shape health and flourishing. It explores how material intelligence, acoustic environments, and sensory design can reduce stress and support cognitive and emotional well-being, reframing the built environment as a physiological interface where design actively shapes how we feel, think, and restore.
This inaugural edition centers on the hidden archive of design education: the drawings, prototypes, muslins, models, and remnants that accumulate through cycles of experimentation and critique. These materials carry the full weight of making, yet they are routinely discarded. Impact Exhibit 2026 reclaims them.
Through a Parsons-wide open call, students from across the school’s disciplines were invited to contribute work aligned with this framework. Selected projects are integrated into a unified spatial narrative shaped by the Impact Exhibit team. The platform establishes a model for recurring international presentation, cross-college collaboration, and exhibition-based research.
Future editions will continue to explore evolving themes at the intersection of health and design.
Meet the Team
Impact Exhibit was created by Carly Cannell, Director of the BFA Interior Design Program and Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design.
A licensed interior designer and founder of weetu, a New York multi-disciplinary studio working across space, brand, strategy and sound, Cannell brings over 25 years of professional practice to the initiative, bridging design education with real-world exhibition, strategy, and sensory experience.
The inaugural 2026 edition is co-taught with Parsons alumni Brett Gui Xin and Del Hoyle, co-founders of Outgoing, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary studio working across furniture, installation, textiles, and sound.
Impact Exhibit Student Makers: Ema Fosdick, Joanne Huang, Nicole Kim, Katherine Lee, Karman Liang, Lee Montoya, Graysen Ross-Graham, Netri Shah, Sivana Shancey, Sofia Villada-Millan, and Jea Yang.
Student stories coming soon!