This event is part of Spirit & Dust, an exhibition on death and dying curated by Diane Callahan and Michelle Burdine.
We all carry stories. Some we tell often. Some we have never said out loud. Some we are still learning how to understand.
Stories We Carry is a community storytelling circle created by The Grief Club in partnership with Urban Arts Space, inviting participants to slow down and share a story that has stayed with them.
Through guided prompts and intentional conversation, we’ll create space for personal narratives, memories, reflections, poetry, spoken word, and the experiences that have shaped us.
This is not a performance. It is not an open mic.
It is an invitation to share, listen, witness, and connect.
Come with a story. Come with a memory. Come simply to listen.
Whatever you carry or are curious about, there is room for it here.
Stories can be about:
- Grief & loss
- Love & relationships
- Family
- Motherhood
- Identity
- Joy
- Becoming
- Life transitions
- Resilience
- A person who changed you
- A moment you will never forget
- Something you're still learning to understand
- A story you've never had the space to tell
Participants do not have to share to participate.
The Grief Club is a community-centered organization creating intentional spaces for people to explore grief, loss, healing, and the many emotions that accompany change.
Founded by Cortland Mullins following the loss of her mother, The Grief Club creates experiences that make room for honest conversations around grief while recognizing that grief is not limited to death. Through gatherings, storytelling experiences, workshops, and community conversations, The Grief Club invites people to connect, reflect, and feel less alone in what they carry.
Promo Image Art by Ton'nea Green. 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!
