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CALLING ALL FRIENDS – YEAR-END FUNDRAISING BY DEC 30th! Last Call! Thank you to all of the amazing people who made MoM great in 2024 at The Factory in St Pete! It’s because of you that we made it through. Shout out to everyone who is reading this – If you haven’t joined our year end fundraiser – there is still time. We need to fill the gaps in dollars. Every donation goes towards our keeping the doors open and the lights on. We are volunteer run and free and open to the public. Thanks to all those who have given and gratitude notes coming to each of you! Special shout out to Aleks M. & Scott Rosen and Joseph T for joining our Founders Circle this year. Please consider giving in the name of someone you love. MoM is here for YOU and has been for over 20 years.
Thank You to Our 2024 Team Members!
Our team of experts and volunteers are all incredible. They are pictured on our ‘Team‘ page and in our banner here. We could not do what we do without each and everyone of them! SO MUCH LOVE <3
We Are Now A Funded Partner with Foundation For A Healthy St Pete
Thank you FHSP: Foundation funded partner the Museum of Motherhood (MoM) is devoted to the art, science, and herstory of women, m/others, and families inclusive of all reproductive identities. They strive to redefine how we talk about motherhood, celebrate and make visible the work of moms, and provide a safe and inclusive space for learning and community.
“This idea came organically after my own experiences, being an artist and a mother and seeing that there weren’t really institutions that recognized our creativity and our labor,” said founder Marth Joy Rose, who goes by Joy. Read Full Article.
MoM Manifesto – A Year End Message
You’re here. Maybe you are pregnant and looking forward to the birth of your child? Or, perhaps you’re contemplating getting pregnant? You have a lot of mixed feelings. Maybe you hope you never have to be pregnant. Or, you could even be living with regret, loss, trauma or ongoing pain. In every case the process of nurturing your one precious and extraordinary life in addition to another new life is an exciting, unpredictable and fraught adventure that no one can completely prepare for.
That being said, everyone can, and should do as much educating, planning and spiritual/emotional preparation as possible. This journey takes guts, grit and a group of supportive souls. No one should have to be pregnant, give birth, or raise a child alone. That includes having a child via fostering, adoption, or surrogacy.
That’s why we’re here for you. In a country where social isolation is rampant and high expectations are the norm, we believe that a connection to a collective that values your experiences and perspective can be as important as expert advice, classes, and reading materials.
The Museum of Motherhood (MoM) is an institution that champions you; the mothers, care-workers and creators as well as the lived experiences of offspring (of which we are all part). MoM is also invested in an interdisciplinary postmodern critical field that identifies a nexus of m/otherness as a determining force of action and expression. We call this mother studies.
While many academic interpretations including (psychology and sociology) acknowledge the relational status of human beings, mother studies focuses on each and every aspect of these interpretations within a variety of intersectional, multicultural perspectives. Our attention is on the procreative, creative, and long-term experience of this connected (and sometimes disconnected) status and its transformative nature.
It is our deeply held belief that the important work of birthing and raising future generations, which has historically been the domain of women, requires reverence, respect and genuine compassion.
While not all mothers have the capacity to care well or responsibly for others, the fact remains: every person present on the planet is of womb-born. Also, every person to some degree or other has physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects that connect them both to their birth humans and the humans who raised them.
Therefore, we believe in holding space- in real time- to cherish the embodiment of the life force and all that it entails, which is vast, magnificent and truly awe-inspiring.
MoM is not here to serve you the latest parenting advice. There are zillions of published blogs, videos and books on that subject. Rather, we are here to hold you in communion with the women who have gone before, their art, science and herstory and the creators who have made our whole human family.
We pause here in hallowed halls to process the miracle of our lives and the lives yet to come. We realize that the uniqueness of each of us is reflected in the experiences, stories, and truths we hold, and that those truths can evolve, change and have the potential to be healed. We believe that in healing ourselves we heal the planet and that translates to a more deeply held conviction about the sacred complexity of each and every living being. ~Martha Joy Rose, Founder & Director
Martha JOY Rose is an award-winning artist and activist. Her pursuits have included academia, large-scale community gatherings, music, media, and Mother Studies. As the founder of the Museum of Motherhood (NYC & FL), and the MOM Art Annex 501c3 nonprofit in St. Petersburg, FL, she has organized International conferences, hosted students, as well as interns, from a wide selection of universities, developed curriculum on motherhood and feminism, and overseen the evolution of a modern m/other’s movement. She is also the founder of MaMaPaLooZa and the Journal of Mother Studies. Current pursuits include scholarship, art-making, and publishing her writing. [More about Joy] Read More.
Second Saturday in January, Tours and Special Events
Health Education and Wellness Events, the Escape Womb is OPEN, Ribbon Cutting with St Pete Chamber of Commerce, Second Saturday Art Walk and more. See what we have going at MoM here on our ‘Events‘ page.