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Diane Callahan, who co-curated “Spirit & Dust” alongside Michelle Burdine, traced the genesis of the new Urban Arts Space exhibition back to the first Death Cafe…
See how Ohio State has embraced experiential learning and community engagement through the arts—including with Urban Arts Space's Community Engagement Internship Program, funded by the Mellon…
In conceiving “We Just Still,” curators Iyana Hill and Jonathan Johnson said that Raymonn “Sugar Ray” Daniels was the first name that sprung to mind, the longtime Columbus airbrush artist having…
Fourth-grade students from Bexley’s Cassingham Elementary School and Columbus’ Shady Lane Elementary School met recently at John Bishop Park in Whitehall to celebrate the unveiling of a mural they…
"We Just Still" highlights creativity and innovation in an immersive experience.
Airbrush and visual artist Raymonn "Sugar Ray" Daniels shares some background on his exhibit. He's joined by…
The Urban Arts Space is highlighting up-and-coming artists.
Whether it's connecting to nature through movement, or preserving sacred traditions, two shows happening this month are sure to…
Homing: Site Reflections is a collaborative project by Katherine G. Moore and Kathryn Nusa Logan that examines how people connect with landscapes through sound, movement, and…
As a Community Engagement Intern at Urban Arts Space (UAS), I have spent my spring semester learning about the arts scene in Columbus and how Ohio State as a university supports it through UAS…
The hot summer season brings exciting perspectives in overlooked ways: through nature, the body, and identity. Urban Arts Space is enthusiastic to announce four multimedia exhibitions between May…
As Urban Arts Space Community Engagement Interns, our days commonly feature site visits and collaborations with various arts and culture organizations around Columbus. My first site visit earlier…
More than 100 undergraduate students at The Ohio State University have worked as “externs” with area arts organizations since 2023, when the university received $2 million from the Mellon…
Displayed at the Ohio History Center, the traveling exhibit Queens of the Heartland highlights African American women from Ohio, spanning the 1830s to today. It features their photos,…
Urban Arts Space is excited to welcome the newest member of our team—Dr. Xiaoxiao Bao, our Community Learning and Experience Specialist!
Xiaoxiao arrived in Columbus in 2019 after a seven…
Collage is an art rooted in disruption. It resists singular narratives, building from preexisting fragments and making space for complexity, contradiction, and the unlikely artist. That spirit was…
In this hectic world we live in today, it is important to have spaces that ground and remind us of the interconnectedness we share with one another. That may entail your favorite local café, a…
Urban Arts Space’s Community Artist-in-Residence, Tyiesha Radford Shorts, shares five of her essential reads connected to her expertise in Black Appalachian studies. From academic essays and…
COLUMBUS, OH, FEBRUARY 9, 2026 – Waiting for the Light to Change features bodies of work shaped by curiosity, reflection, and critical engagement with the world around us. This Master of…
796 Innocents by Mia Sweeney Gahrmann takes its title from the 796 babies and young children whose remains were discovered in 2017 at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in…
“I was a Columbus City Schools kid myself, and as somebody who has always enjoyed the arts … you want to do anything you can to fuel that interest,” January said, pointing to obstacles such as…
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Seniors in the Ohio State University art department want you to celebrate their graduation.
Watch the full interview segment on WSYX!
Art becomes a mirror for being: a space where identities can stretch, fracture, heal, and reform. Urban Arts Space (UAS) is proud to present Artist Commune: Being and Belonging, an…
As someone who hasn’t touched a poetry book in years, my first glimpse into Laura Da’s newest poetry collection, Severalty, threw me for a loop. I will use the statement I often hear from…
“Really, the spirit of the exhibition is taking each stanza of the poem and … allowing it to become almost a room,” said Da’, whose exhibit opened earlier this week and continues through Nov. 15. “So…
“We enter the poem from a place of inquiry, ‘Why Lazarus.’ More than a question, the title hints at a possible lament, an explanation, an outcry to an ancestor or…
Autumn seems to be one of the most festive and busiest times of the year. Whether you are a student in school, a full-time worker, or anywhere in between, this time of year can feel like you never…
Urban Arts Space is thrilled to announce that Dr. Terron Banner has been appointed as the organization’s new Director, bringing his commitment to community and his expertise in arts administration…
We’re taught in school about Ohio’s role as a free state, but what were the experiences of those who risked their lives to reach our borders? What happened once they made it to the river?
The Columbus writers will celebrate the release of their new collection with a poetry collage party at Urban Arts Space on Saturday, Sept. 20.
The Ship and the Storm, a new…
Multidisciplinary artist Keya Crenshaw is a native of Columbus, Ohio. Keya is the founder of Black Chick Media, LLC and the Scared Spaces Collective. Keya’s work, Cypress, Camellias, Magnolias…
"'Restless Office' is an exhibit that looks at a new type of office, hopefully an office of the future, in response to the current conditions of the office," Nowak said. "We know that the hybrid…
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Michael Hambouz is a multidisciplinary artist and musician who creates a variety of intricate and abstracted works ranging from prints and sculptures to animations…
"A daughter / observes until her eyes are blood-thick with / history," writes Ajanaé Dawkins in Blood-Flex, the author's debut chapbook. In this collection, Dawkins dissolves the clouded…
The Urban Arts Space Music Collective is a collaborative Spotify project. We create playlists that incorporate specific genres of music, music history, record labels, new album releases,…
A pair of exhibitions opened at Urban Arts Space this week are divided by a border, of sorts, with “Fragmented-Recaptured” staged in the upper gallery space and “
“My loneliness demands my attention too. I tend to it the best I can.” — Michelle Herman
In her latest book, If You Say So, Michelle Herman takes us through a…
Our newest Community Artist-in-Residence, Tyiesha Radford Shorts, was interviewed by Urban Arts Space Intern Sarah Jenkins for Columbus Underground!
"I am on a journey to reorient…
In late May, I was approached by the senior staff at Urban Arts Space. There wasn’t an Artist Commune event for June planned and they wanted an intern to plan the event. I…
"My practice is rooted in a deep respect for the body, for color, and for the emotional weight both can carry. I create work that celebrates Blackness and womanness with intention, clarity, and…
In some ways, the exhibition serves as a visual representation of the divide that exists between Herman’s fiction work and her collections of nonfiction essays, with the gallery split between oil…
Community Connectors is a monthly series highlighting Ohio State staff members who have shown leadership in partnering with our communities to make an impact.
…
Ohio: A State of Dance is a dynamic, multimedia exhibition that invites visitors to explore the rich and diverse history of dance across the state of Ohio. Through the OhioDance Virtual…
Tyiesha Radford Shorts has begun to prepare for her future artist-in-residency stint at Urban Arts Space by looking to the past.
An educator, writer and multidisciplinary artist, Shorts has…
“I had a deep fixation with witnessing the women in my life, the women who raised me, and seeing their interiority and their relationship with the world, and then thinking about our relationship,”…
“I want to make work about anger and grief, but also falling in love,” Martin said. “And those are things that have always been present in my work in some way, but I noticed the more I create, the…
Urban Arts Space is proud to launch the Artist Commune Journal, a community arts publication. The inaugural issue—centered on the theme of Care/Culture/Justice—amplifies twenty-five…
History, art, and activism converge in the works of Urban Arts Space’s newest Community Artist-in-Residence, Tyiesha Radford Shorts. The UAS Community Artist-in-Residence program is now…
Love, grief, resilience, and dance: these universal themes can shape our most transformative summers. For the summer of 2025, we welcome you to explore these themes through the five…
Design is inherently political through its unique ability to change the social, cultural, economic, and structural systems of our lives, so why do we limit the job of a designer to something…
The Department of Art Auxiliary Faculty and Staff Exhibition at Hopkins Hall Gallery was featured in Ohio State News! Read the full article for interviews with artists Kate Durham and…
Watch the full feature about Artist Commune: Intersections on Lantern TV, featuring interviews with our Manager of Community Learning and Experience, Dr. Terron Banner, as well as Professional…
The upcoming Urban Arts Space exhibition Vessels in Red boldly invites the audience to feel without fear—unapologetically and without restraint. Through a landscape of red-toned…
"Can I catch all flying things, arrest them, and not stop them, heaven by design, and not by Raphael or Poussin, by me and painted air, all things moving in my sky…" wrote Syd Solomon in a poem in…
Dr. Terron Banner has served as Urban Art Space’s Manager of Community Learning and Experience for over three years. From live events to virtual exhibitions, Dr. Banner’s presence has been vital…
In the fall of 2024, I had a fantastic opportunity to observe a workshop on conducting research and archiving history through poetry. I never considered myself a poet before, but this workshop…
Andrew Mehall is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at The Ohio State University whose work meditates on our relationships with technology, memory, and authorship. Constructed from found objects and…
Annelise Duque is a Filipino-American artist, currently an MFA graduate student at The Ohio State University, and one of thirteen artists featured in Desire Lines, the MFA…
Grief, loss, and mourning are central to life and Isabella Saraceni's work. As she explores the fragility of life through various materials of the same nature, she hopes to create navigational…
"What I really want people to take away from the show is that transgender joy and resilience is something that's part of the human experience and it has been probably for as long as we've been…
"The overall triptych in its entirety has a forefront of celebrating Black trans bodies, but it also talks about this idea of creating space for Black bodies to be nurturing, soft and vulnerable,"…
Julian Robbins is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges digital and physical realms, exploring themes of identity, history, and storytelling. Their current installation features inkjet…
On October 24, 2024, I had the honor of attending two conversation panels about Ming Smith at the Wexner Center for the Arts for the Lambert Photography Symposium. As a visual…
COLUMBUS, OH – February 17–28, 2025 – What happens when artistic practice and academic inquiry collide? The trace layer play collective invites you to witness, explore, and engage…
We’re enthusiastic to share that our Community Artist-in-Residence Ajanaé Dawkins has been awarded the prestigious Elizabeth George Foundation Grant! This is a highly selective opportunity that…