EVENTS + WORKSHOPS
Madison Death STUDIO workshops are led by practitioners doing creative and groundbreaking work in community-based death + grief care. They bring together art, craft, folklore, ritual, and other creative practices to explore how we care for ourselves and one another through death, grief, and loss.
These gatherings are educational and supportive spaces to learn, make, reflect, and explore new ways of understanding how we can collectively tend to death + grief in community.
UPCOMING EVENTS
HELP KEEP WORKSHOPS ACCESSIBLE
We believe care work is valuable work. Workshop prices are set to compensate our facilitators for their time, expertise, and creative labor. We offer limited 50% and 100% scholarships when we can for those who request them. Reach out if you'd like to learn more about scholarship availability for an upcoming workshop.
Looking for ways to support?
The MDS Community Fund helps us offer scholarships and create more free and low-cost programming while continuing to pay practitioners for their work.
If you're in a position to contribute, your support helps make more of this possible.
FALL 2026 WORKSHOPS + EVENTS
Forgotten Funerals
Thursday, September 10 • 6 PM - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Halie Tenor, Nested Kin
IN-PERSON | a workshop + ritual honoring roadside wildlife deaths, and exploring our relationship to ecological grief
$85 | Registration Required
Limited to 8 participants.
BROADCAST Release Reception
Wednesday, September 30 • 4 PM - 7 PM
IN-PERSON | Celebrate the release of the inaugural issue of BROADCAST—a new quarterly publication connecting death, grief, care + community.
FREE | No registration required
Decomposium | Wormfarm Institute
October 9 - 11 • All day
IN-PERSON in Sauk City, WI | Find the Madison Death STUDIO’s Meghan Allynn Johnson among other artists and scholars at the Wormfarm Institute’s 2026 Decomposium - a symposium on rot and renewal.
FREE | Registration Requested
Advanced Planning as an Act of Love
Tuesday, October 20 • 6 PM - 7:30 PM CT
Facilitated by: Catherine, your Death Project Manager + Pilot Lee, financial professional
VIRTUAL | An introduction to the importance of advanced directives and end-of-life planning for queer communities, artists, and chosen families
FREE | Registration required
This Shadow I Carry
Thursday, October 29 • 6 PM - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Abby Goelzer + Rachael Gonzalez
IN-PERSON | Explore tools for tending grief and hardship through making a trollpåse—a magical folk talisman from the old ways of Scandinavia.
$100 | Registration required
Limited to 8 participants.
Energetic Boundaries for the Holiday Season
Thursday, November 12 • 6 - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Brandi Martinez (aka: Psychic Readings by Brandi)
IN PERSON | A workshop for to explore grounding, boundaries, and spiritual care ahead of the holidays
$65 | Registration required
Limited to 8 participants.
Weaving with Grief
Thursday, December 17 • 6 - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Shandra Bauer
IN PERSON | A workshop exploring weaving as a creative practice for tending grief
$85 | Registration required
Limited to 8 participants.
REGISTRATION LINK COMING SOON.
Rituals for Grief: WATER
Thursday, November 5 • 6 - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Anastasia Coppola, LCSW
IN PERSON | In this Scorpio season workshop, explore grief ritual through elemental water, moon water, reflection, and a hands-on creative textile practice.
$85 | Registration required
Limited to 8 participants.
End of Life Community Mixer
Tuesday, November 10 • 8:30 - 10 AM
IN PERSON @ UW-Madison | A community mixer bringing together people working across healthcare, research and community-based death, dying, grief and caregiving spaces to foster new connections and mutual learning.
FREE | Registration required
Forgotten Funerals
Thursday, December 10 • 6 PM - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Halie Tenor of Nested Kin
IN-PERSON | a workshop + ritual honoring roadside wildlife deaths, and exploring our relationship to ecological grief
$85 | Registration Required
Limited to 8 participants.
REGISTRATION LINK COMING SOON.
Love Letters to the Living World
Thursday, November 19 • 6 - 8 PM
Facilitated by: Halie Tenor, Nested Kin
IN PERSON | A workshop for exploring ritual, creative letter writing, and connection as ways to tend to eco-grief.
$85 | Registration required
Limited to 8 participants.