Feature image: The Madison Death Studio leads a mock burial at a natural cemetery in Verona, Wisconsin. Photo: Madison Death Studio.
By Emilie Heidemann
Meghan Allynn Johnson, a death worker and artist from Madison, Wisconsin, knows how lonely it can be to go through a devastating loss and to grapple with the grief that follows. Her parents died two years apart. Johnson’s father died in 2018, and her mother in 2020. “I had been living in Harlem at that time and lost close friends and neighbors when COVID-19 first hit New York City, so alongside my mother’s death, I was experiencing a stream of losses within my community,” Johnson said. “During that time, I found out just how isolating it can be to go through loss after loss in our death-phobic culture. I ran into bureaucratic bereavement policies at work and felt the fatigue in talking about grief and death within my close relationships.” She turned to Instagram.
That led to the creation of the Madison Death Studio, which posted for the first time on the social media site in May 2024, and sought to use art to help people better understand their own grief and develop a more comfortable relationship with the concept of death.
The Madison Death Studio initially launched as the Madison Death Collective, Johnson said, with her friend, who is a grief therapist. It’s just Johnson running the show these days, as her friend wanted to focus on her practice full-time. There are maybe eight or nine other organizations of this type around the world, she said.
“People clearly needed this. We started getting a lot of interest in the Madison Death Collective and our in-person events. I started setting up booths at local markets … where I was approached by grievers, the dying, health practitioners, and lots and lots of curious folks who were like, “What the heck is a death collective, and how can I be a part of it?’ Johnson said Madison Death Studio’s programming centers on different types of craft and creative projects for death care practices.
“Our first event in 2024 was a Weave and Grieve, where we sat in a rented room in the Goodman Community Center and sipped hot cocoa and weaved thrifted yarn onto handmade cardboard looms together while talking about the community around death and grief.” The Madison Death Studio has also held mock burials at natural cemeteries in the Madison area and leads an art history series alongside death-work artist Narinder Bazen, called Dead of Winter. The series invites death workers and creators to join during the winter months to make art and look at artworks “through the lens of mysticism, folklore, and cultural death midwifery.”
“It’s part studio time, part creative show-and-tell, and part history lecture,” said Johnson. “When we avoid death and consider it controversial, then people who are experiencing death or loss are isolated and made to feel shame about their lived experience. The truth is, we heal in community.”
Visit madisondeathcollective.org to learn more and connect on Instagram at @madison.death.studio.
Madison Death Studio is published in Issue 40. Purchase a copy here.
Emilie Heidemann is a professional storyteller and freelance journalist from Madison, Wisconsin. She enjoys covering the local arts scene and writing poetry.