Our New Year

Looking Back / Looking Forward

Last year we saw so many changes. Some easy and some challenging. At the end of the year, like so many, we honor the year behind us and look forward to the year ahead!

In 2023, MoM hosted the Annual Academic Conference on Maternal Landscapes and welcomed travelers from around the world, finalizing production on the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS) for online publication post-conference. We worked with artists in residence including and extended residency with Batya Weinbaum who created an onsite goddess mural at the MOM Art Annex. We purchased the Mother Tree by Helen Hiebert for our permanent collection with the support of you- the friends of MoM. As we made new friends in the community we worked with YesChefVillage hosting community dinners onsite, joined Localtopia for its huge local festival gathering, and conducted 178 MoM tours. Our internships were active with local Feminist Club high school students and another university graduate students completing final projects with MoM from different countries including Russia, Canada, England, and France. Finally, we enjoyed media attention from SpectrumBayNews9, the Tampa Bay Times (twice), and Authentic Florida. Finally, in September, we moved from our offices at the MOM Art Annex to The Factory in the arts district of St. Pete and opened our doors to the public. Our lease runs through July 2024. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Our New Year 2024

January 2024 last call to view Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job exhibit through January 15th onsite at The Factory. Then, MoM welcomes the Womb Project ‘Time-based Sculpture and Documentation’ with yarn by Madison Hendry.

January 15th New Board Members announced.

February 18th Feminist Pizza Party: as part of Dining for the Arts with Historic Kenwood.

March is Women’s History Month!

March 16 & 17 – MOM Art Annex Studio Tour as part of the AEHK.

March 22-24 – Annual MoM Conference: Threads of Connection – Sorry/Not Sorry featuring keynote speaker Courtney Kessel with an interactive site-responsive installation of “Fabric of Life” and the art of the doula and Madison Hendry with group-led conversations circles at the Mother Tree with community crochet, panel discussions, conference presentations, and local health & wellness exhibitions.

May is Mothers Month! Saint Petersburg Month of Photography – SPMOP (Local Photography Exhibit) in partnership with local artists.

June- July Geography of a Woman featuring Interiors “we are all pink inside” by Christen Clifford and the Goddesses of Malta.

This schedule is sure to blossom. If you are interested in getting involved with MoM as a volunteer, partner, collaborator, local sponsor, or through workshop or other participation, or if you’d like to share your time or expertise, please contact us! To make a donation to MoM go to our donation page please.

Special Holiday Hours

MoM wishes you and yours all the best of health, wealth, and wisdom during these last few weeks of the 2023 season, and of course into the new year.

With our year-end fundraiser going strong and the first four months at The Factory in St. Pete under our belt, it’s time to rock forward into all kinds of new adventures. By, the way, did you know that recent evidence suggests museums improve our psychological, social, and spiritual sense of well-being?

If you think you might want to visit between now and the new year, please call ahead, or write first. Though drop-ins are welcome, our hours might be affected as our volunteers take care of their own busy lives. Call 877-711-MOMS (6667) or INFO@MOMmusem.org. We’ll get back to you asap.

Museums Are Good For You

Over the past few years, Britain has added a focus on non-medical interventions that address psychosocial wellbeing which includes connecting people with museums and other cultural organizations. They are working to shift from a deficit-based approach toward care, to finding new ways to support health and wellbeing. “A growing body of evidence shows that museums can bring benefits to individual and community health and wellbeing in their role as public forums for debate and learning, their work with specific audiences through targeted programmes, and by contributing to positive wellbeing and resilience by helping people to make sense of the world and their place within it,” suggests Mind, Body, Spirit: How museums Impact Health and Wellbeing. This relates to all museum collections, whether they be art, history, or science. Link to article.

By The Numbers

Since we opened at The Factory, we have been averaging about 1,200 guests a month. But, because we are free and open to the public, our solvency depends on fundraising. We are currently looking to raise the funds for rent and utilities through 2024. We did the math – if 1,398 friends, family, and followers donate $20 we will get there! Can you help? Every dollar makes the dream happen. We need you, each of you, now! Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. We are a 501c3 non-profit.

MoM Loves You!

Oh, and our website is now ADA compliant! Yay. We hope you love that too. Look for the little pop-up symbol.

This Is How We Do It: One Person, One Day At A Time With Inspiration For All – SUPPORT MoM! We NEED YOU NOW.

DONATE

Can you answer this question? How many people wept tears of gratitude on Saturday at the Museum of Motherhood, either because they felt ‘seen’, ‘heard’, or because they accessed the information they’d been seeking?

The answer is THREE, in addition to the other amazing people we had the pleasure of interacting with. We witnessed the overwhelmed military mom, a traveler from Dallas, and a son who recently lost his mother and was looking for connection. They all dabbed tears from their eyes. Since moving to The Factory in St Pete, we are greeting approximately 1,200 people a month with a mission of informing and inspiring lives while remaining free and open to the public. We are able to do this because of your generous donations.

The non-profit world is hard. It’s a fact that many museums struggle to maintain their collections, buildings and staff. MoM currently has over a dozen community volunteers, a devoted director, a strategic team for infrastructure building and fiscal growth, a commendable collection of mother-made art, and a mission of taking our rightful place in the museum world.

For twenty years, on a shoestring budget, with an unrelenting commitment to thrive, founder Martha Joy Rose has championed the Museum of Motherhood, first through its New York non-profit status with the Motherhood Foundation Inc, to the MaMaPaLooZa Festival, to the streets of Seneca Falls, to Manhattan College, to the Department of Gender and Sexuality at USF in Tampa, to St Petersburg, Florida.

In 2019, the MOM Art Annex 501c3 was approved for Florida non-profit status. Then, the pandemic. MoM pivoted to mentor eighteen interns from around the world with a variety of projects and made its facility available to over a dozen artists in residence supporting mother made art, literature, and performance. Post-pandemic, from 2022-2023, we conducted over 178 in-home tours featuring the artifacts in our permanent collection, hosted healthy community suppers for families in need, and participated in Localtopia. We were able to purchase the Mother Tree for our permanent collection in 2023 and make the transition from the MOM Art Annex office to The Factory in the Arts District of St. Pete.

The Time For MoM’s Sustainability Is Now

We are poised for success. Our ducks are in a row, our noses are clean and our strategy for success is in place. All we need now are the partnerships, dollars, and donors to take this museum production to legacy status. Our goals are to continue to build out community partnerships. This year we added the Fairgrounds St Pete, Heiress Gallery, Girls Rock St Pete, and Naaman Creative to our team of community collaborators.

Our space at The Factory is staffed and ready to greet you. Exhibitions since our opening in September have included Amy Wolf’s wearable collection, and Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job. Plans are underway for our annual spring MoM Conference, and future exhibits with Madison Hendry and Christen Clifford.

Please Donate Today

Our Go Fund Me has launched with a goal of raising $30K. (These dollars have already been matched for our 2023 budget). Now we need to raise the rest! We will be using this money to pay our rent, keep our lights and phone on, and to make our website ADA compliant.

Donations can be made by Check and addressed to 538 28th St. N. St Petersburg, FL 33713, through our Go Fund Me, or on our website. Your support is critical to our success. LINK TO OUR GO FUND ME IS HERE.

Join our year-end fundraiser for the Museum of Motherhood! We need your support to keep the rent paid and the lights on!
Fundraiser Museum of Motherhood end of year 2023
DONATE

#GivingTuesday: Mothers Give Everyday: what Rosalynn Carter said about caregiving

“There are only four kinds of people in the world—those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.” Rosalynn Carter.

What is a m/other, if not someone who sees to the wellbeing of her family whenever and if-ever possible? From birth on, the person who both gave us life and also the person who often sees to our care and upbringing are forever linked through body, mind, and psyche to the one’s whom they are connected.

Through our biologies, our relationships and our care-work, we are all connected in unfathomable ways

Our children’s cells live on in our brains. Whether we are caregiving forward towards our offspring or adopted children, or our neighborhood, or caring backward for a parent or grandparent , the circle of life involves constant attention to our collective well-being.

Research shows women who live near each other affect the other’s reproductive cycles. It is also scientifically proven that we share more than just our pregnant bodies with our offspring. “Women have microchimeric cells both from their mother, as well as from their own pregnancies” (Link). These remain in our bodies throughout our lives. We are indeed present in not only our physical reality but also our energetic one.

We honor the work of Rosalynn Carter and of all the mothers and others who have devoted large portions of their lives to caring for others: this can mean mental health care, infant care, healthcare, domestic care, professional care, partner care, community care, parent care and even environmental and pet care.

MoM needs your help as we nurture the nurturers and empower the future caregivers of the world

At the Museum of Motherhood we work everyday, round the clock to share the art, science and herstory of mothers. In September, we moved to a new 1,000 sq. ft venue in the arts district of St. Petersburg, Florida!

With over a dozen volunteers who reach thousands of individuals each month, we require the dollars to stay open, accessible, and free to the public.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Fundraiser Museum of Motherhood end of year 2023

Our ‘Mothers Give Everyday’ Campaign is a call to raise $30K:

Can you help us pay the rent and utilities in 2024 at our new venue?

Can you help us make our website ADA compliant.

Will you add a name to our Tribute page?

MAKE A LEGACY DONATION IN THE NAME OF SOMEONE YOU LOVE ON OUR TRIBUTE PAGE! Donate here [Link at bottom) or on our GoFundMe page!

Join this campaign in memory of your mother, grandmother, and those people you hold near & dear: the blended families, the non-traditional families and the individuals that have nurtured you. Or, honor a professional who has impacted your life by taking care of your reproductive health: the midwives, obstetricians, nurses, doulas, and pediatricians. The teachers, aunties, and other mothers who have and are impacting the future leaders of our world!

After 20 years of creating conferences, working with students around the world, mentoring young women (and men), and creating a safe and then significant space for family members, we have landed:

HELLO ST PETERSBURG WE HAVE JOINED THE CITY OF MUSEUMS!

Make a tax deductible donation in any amount to the MOM Art Annex 591c3 for the Museum of Motherhood .

MoM loves you and values your participation.

Remember there is only one degree of separation between YOU and MOM.

DONATE NOW / Honor Somone on our TRIBUTE PAGE (optional)