Shine a Light

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center | Immersive Exhibit

Human trafficking doesn't happen somewhere else. It happens in Ohio motels, neighborhoods, and farms — often hiding in plain sight.

For the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, I developed the concept for Shine a Light, an immersive exhibit that confronts visitors with that uncomfortable truth. The experience begins in familiar, everyday Ohio settings — then reveals the survivors who were trafficked there, making abstract statistics suddenly, viscerally real.

I conceived the exhibit narrative, personally located and interviewed trafficking survivors, collaborated with editors to shape their stories into the exhibit's emotional core, and developed the copy throughout.

A Real Art production in partnership with the Freedom Center.