This event is part of Spirit & Dust, an exhibition on death and dying curated by Diane Callahan and Michelle Burdine.
Most of us were taught to carry it quietly. To keep moving. To be the one who holds it together while everyone else falls apart. So grief settles somewhere in the body and stays there— unnamed, unspoken, passed down.
Fathers Writing Through Grief exists to interrupt that inheritance.
This afternoon brings together the Spirit & Dust exhibition through the lens of grief, loss, and ancestral roots, guided prompts from the Just Dads Journal, and a booklet designed to walk you through what's hard to say out loud. We'll write about those who have passed—and about the living losses we rarely permit ourselves to mourn.
You don't have to be a writer. You don't have to share. You only have to show up and be honest on the page. This is a guided writing workshop led by Just Dads founder Brent Sigley as well as David Dixon, a father, author, and veteran.
Just Dads equips and empowers fathers with community, emotional regulation skills, and practical tools to stay grounded, strengthen relationships, and build stable futures for their families.just
Promo Image Art by Gee Horton. Promo Design by Nancy Hohl.
“Death is a Dialogue between / The Spirit and the Dust,” writes poet Emily Dickinson. Living is a daily conversation with death, and through art, we continue that dialogue with mortality, loss, and our own humanity. In Spirit & Dust, artists working across various disciplines—from photography and sculpture to poetry and dance—seek to create space for care and connection in confronting questions of death and dying. What do we gather from our grief? How is this knowledge embodied, and what can art provide for this relationship? What can death teach us about what it means to be alive?
The process of creating art serves as a mirror for thinking about dying as a verb, where time is experienced as cyclical rather than linear. Each artist’s medium of choice in Spirit & Dust experiments with how we can deepen our relationship with the process of dying, such as through abstraction in photography, blank space in poetry, the ephemerality of dance, and the fallibility of materials in sculpture.
Spirit & Dust is on view concurrently with Experiencing Veterans and Artists Collaborations (EVAC) in the corridor space, which pairs veterans’ stories with original printmaking.
Curated by Diane Callahan and Michelle Burdine
Participating Artists: Kristina Arnold, Mary Jo Bole, Michelle Burdine, Diane Callahan, Elvira Clayton, Barbara Fant, Ton’nea Green, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Dana Lynn Harper, Ian Hersko, Gee Horton, Laura Larson, Tracy Longley-Cook, Michael J. Morris, Christian O’Keeffe, Paul O’Keeffe, Chantal Wnuk, Melissa Vogley Woods
Support for this project comes from the Mellon Foundation through The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs.
Free Public Programming
We hope you’ll join us during our free public programs this fall! There will also be an audio guide for the full exhibition located at the Urban Arts Space front desk. You’re welcome to schedule a guided curator tour with Diane Callahan at quotidianwriter@gmail.com.
Events at Urban Arts Space
Opening Reception
featuring a durational performance from Michael J. Morris
Friday, October 16, 2026, 5–7 PM
Stories We Carry: A Storytelling Circle with The Grief Club
Thursday, October 22, 6–8 PM
Artist Commune: Death Café
Saturday, October 24, 2–5 PM
What We Talk About When We Talk About Dying
Thursday, November 5, 6–8 PM
Fathers Writing Through Grief with Just Dads
Saturday, November 7, 12–2 PM
Death Over Dinner
Thursday, November 12, 6:30–8:30 PM
Events in the Community
Buckeye Talks on Tap
“Our Bodies as Monsters: Reflecting on Mortality” with Professor Sara Crosby
Tuesday, October 6 at 5:30 PM
Bucci’s Italian Scratch Kitchen on Ohio State’s Marion Campus
Pickerington Death Café
Sunday, October 11, 1–2 PM
Pickerington Public Library
Mansfield Death Café
Monday, November 2, 12:30–1:30 PM
Pearl Conard Gallery
Visiting Urban Arts Space
50 W. Town St., Ste. 130
Columbus, OH 43215
Located in the historic Lazarus Building in downtown Columbus.
Admission to our exhibitions and programs is free!
View this map for parking garage options, with street parking on Rich, Front, and Wall Street, or go to our Accessibility page for bike or bus directions.
- Columbus Commons Parking Garage (Always has ample parking on the upper floors)
- Ohio Statehouse Parking Garage (Enter from westbound Broad Street or Third Street—we recommend this garage when accessibility is a concern)
- Riffe Center Parking Garage (Enter from Front Street)
Gallery Hours
Tuesday: 11:00 AM–6:00 PM
Wednesday: 11:00 AM–6:00 PM
Thursday: 11:00 AM–8:00 PM
Friday: 11:00 AM–6:00 PM
Saturday: 11:00 AM–6:00 PM
Open later for the events listed above!
