The Motherhood Foundation Inc. (MFI) funds ongoing activities and exhibitions at the Museum of Motherhood (MOM). We are grateful for the financial support we received this year. This year’s anonymous grant awarded funds to help support acquisitions, education, art residencies, and scholarship. MOM has not allowed onsite visitors since the COVID-19 pandemic in early March 2020, however, our activities continue.
In February we built and installed a Women’s History Exhibit at USF (University of Southern Florida) in Tampa at the Women and Gender Studies Center celebrating the centennial of American women’s right to vote. That exhibit, titled The Founding Mothers, was archived and is currently available for viewing online at our website. As part of that initiative, one of our students recorded highlights of the feminist waves so that visually impaired visitors could access the information via audio. The website was also redesigned and rebuilt over the course of 2019.
Our internship program mentored eight student interns including three international students who were guided to create content on a wide-ranging series of topics including film and feminist perspectives, literature reviews from our library focused on historical perspectives as they pertain to women, and gendered labor to name a few. Some of these students came from Reproductive Justice classes at USF and some discovered us through Google search as they sought out opportunities for remote internships in a museum setting.
Online exhibits are ongoing in partnership with Procreate Project and the Mom Egg Review (England & USA). MOM also assisted with the promotion and launch of Maternal Arts Magazine (International) in 2020. The Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS) featured the work of ten authors along with two book reviews and was published online on September 1, 2020.
PROGRAMMING: As 2021 approaches with new challenges and opportunities, MOM seeks to reactivate our ongoing Residency Program (by application) onsite at the MOM Art Annex in St. Petersburg, Florida. This program encourages scholars, artists, and activists to apply for the Residency Program onsite for a two-week opportunity for personal and professional development within the interdisciplinary subject of mother studies. (This project is currently funded by volunteer labor).
DEVELOPMENT: MOM is an art, science, and history center. Goals for the MOM Art Annex in St. Pete include purchasing an additional out-building, creating a foundation pad for the building onsite, and outfitting the building for arts activities and art storage ($20,000). In addition to adding an out-building, an existing shed needs attention. Goals include outfitting the shed with AC, finishing the interior walls, moving historical items that are currently inside the main house to this exterior location and installing plexiglass so that visitors can safely access the exhibit without jeopardizing any of the curated materials on display ($18,000). Finally, we aim to create a dozen outdoor waterproof plexi-glass posters to be installed along the fence perimeter of the Annex ($3,000).
ACQUISITIONS: MOM Art Annex aims to acquire a life-size birthing simulator mannequin ($4,295) an antique incubator, (prices vary), exterior sculptures for the sculpture garden (prices vary according to individual artists), as well funds to hire an app developer for MOM.
Wishing you heath and happiness in the new year,
Martha Joy Rose, Director