11/09/2025
In May, 2023, I learned of a unique initiative, a placemaking, interactive, and immersive public art installation at the Toronto Reference Library that explored community bonding and healing through grief. It featured the work of a diverse group of Toronto-based artists with roots in Bangladesh, Colombia, China, and Canada.
Last November, I travelled to Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto with a cherished colleague to walk through the immersive installation for the first time. Stunning. Powerful.
Last weekend, I travelled once again to Evergreen Brick Works to spend a couple of days exploring the , the stunning autumn palette of the Don Valley, and to offer my support to the Space for Grief team.
Created by Method Collective founders Ziyan Hossain, Calla Lee, and Fran Quintero Rawlings, their thoughtful installation blends art, design, and systems research to reimagine how cities hold space for various forms of loss. Fran, Ziyan and Calla are kind, generous, brilliant humans. Joining their team of volunteers for the day was fun - they are all equally passionate about this growing global movement.
As I shared with Ziyan, the moment I walked through the entrance, the tears came, warm and welcomed. It felt very much like walking through a tender portal to a deeper layer of humanity; where the secret sorrows each of us carries could move safely out from the shadows into the light of day. It was a poignant moment of physically experiencing the powerful shift that can happen when our grief is seen, when we are given an opportunity to fill the spaces grief left hollow with communal care and understanding.
A space where we can be more fully ourselves, more fully alive, honouring every experience that has shaped us.
Space for Grief challenges the assumption that grief must remain hidden or private, instead embedding it into the public realm as a catalyst for belonging and renewal. The research and insights from Space for Grief have since been used to inform a new framework “Grief-Informed Futures” to explore systemic impacts of grief in government, healthcare and industry internationally.
“Grief is a quiet yet universal force shaping things from mental health to climate resilience, cultural identity to public policy. It lives in the spaces between us, shaping our world even when we pretend it isn’t there.”
As a social worker and grief counsellor, I have a deep understanding that creating opportunities such as this to openly explore and discuss experiences of grief is tremendously helpful to one’s journey of integration and healing after loss. Having communal spaces available to the general public is a powerful way to build awareness, to foster grief literacy, and to open healthy dialogue within the broader community.
“Space for Grief was created to make grief visible; not as a private failure, but as a universal language, a systemic force and a shared human inheritance.”
As Susan Blight (Assistant Professor, York University) noted in the panel discussion last Sunday, it is imperative as we move forward that we view grief as a form of knowledge requiring time, understanding, and experiential feedback. Mary Frances O’Connor (Neuroscientist, Author) talks about this within her research too.
Keep an eye on this movement as it continues to unfold around us. There are many iterations of this return to public community care and support all around us. It’s heartening to witness this shift.
As Fran, Ziyan and Calla note: “We have always known how to grieve together. We only need to remember.”
You are already part of this story. Step through.💛
