MoM creates, produces, and presents artistic, educational and cultural content that studies and supports women, mothers, and those exploring reproductive identity.
MoM seeks to marry education, herstory, creativity, culture, and community for the benefit of all with a special emphasis on women who are mothers by amplifying their voices. By collecting examples of the scope and breadth of the massive contributions m/others make, their works become recognized and generations benefit from the legacy and documentation of the collective cultural voice.
Exhibits – We Build Tampa Bay 2025
MESS HOUSE- Dec 1 by Martha Joy Rose with photos from the museum archives and inspiration from Batya Weinbaum from her chapter of the same name in the book Gone Feral, Demeter Press (2025).
At the Museum of Motherhood we are exploring the messy intersections of parenting, culture, and mental health can be a powerful lens into what family life really feels like. This exhibit features photos and text and can be found in the entrance space to MoM at The Factory St Pete in Building 7. See More About the Exhibit
September- October 30, 2025 Gourdeous Goddesses with Robyn “Avalon” Cross
We welcome local artist Robyn Cross for all the autumnal goddess energy rising as M/other Earth holds us !!
Come see this gourdeous exhibit thru October.
During regular hours w/items for purchase to benefit MoM.
June – July 2025 Caring St Pete, Student Project
Caring St. Pete: 6-Week Summer Intern Project Plan For High School Interns and Community members at the Museum of Motherhood
Project Overview: Explore and interpret the value of caregiving—both unpaid and paid (carework)—through research, storytelling, art, and community engagement. The final product will be a curated exhibit at the Museum of Motherhood. See More About the Exhibit
LIVE Performance with Julienne Doko
May 10, 2025 7-8PM. W.O.M.B. Worth Of My Body a poetic dance expression featuring Julienne Doko – a French dance performer, teacher and choreographer with roots in the Central African Republic: she currently lives in Denmark and is in Tampa Bay by special grant award for this special performance at the Museum of Motherhood.
April 14-18, 2025 Mural Painting at MoM
Raisa Nosova, acclaimed artist and muralist is came to St Pete with a desire to contribute to MoM by creating a mural on the facade of building 7 at The Factory where MoM is currently located.
Raisa has created murals in Milan, Brooklyn and Manhattan to name a few. Please join us in celebrating her, and her incredible work as we all come into the light together. Pop by MoM and celebrate the progress from plain to plentiful as we all witness ‘Woman In the Light’. #RaisaTheRoof
April 10, 2025 Black Maternal Health Awareness Week.
We thank Courtney West, USF and Sara Hunter as well as local birth workers for organizing and helping us raise awareness about Black Maternal Health.
MoM hosted event as part of our Health, Wellness and Education committee that includes doula Courtney West as well as award-winning photographer Sara Hunter on exhibit at MoM April 10th 5-8PM with a DJ and refreshments.
Onsite at MoM in The Factory in St. Pete.
March 2025: ‘MoM Art Auction’ celebrating and supporting mother made art. In partnership with OXH Gallery pioneering a collaboration in the arts, and beyond. Odeta Xheka, founder of OXH, the Executive Board of the Museum of Motherhood and Martha Joy Rose bring together visionary artists, collectors, and supporters for an evening of Mother-Made Art. The event signals a shift in Tampa Bay’s cultural landscape. The MoM Executive Board is executing this event.
The auction features original works by a curated selection of established, mid-career, and emerging artists. Twenty-seven international artists have contributed works for this event. Proceeds will support MoM’s mission to collect, preserve, and disseminate art that illuminates the diverse experiences of motherhood elucidating a commitment to grow in connection, brilliance and a shared affection for the most beautiful things life has to offer. MoM Art Auction.
January 2025: ‘MoM’s Escape Womb Experience’ is designed to delight visitors with clues and puzzles about the nuances of conception, gestation and birth in a fun and informative environment.
This health, wellness and education adventure is a-first-of-its-kind in the world. Open to people age 18 and above (younger with an accompanying parent or guardian) by advance reservation. Tickets can be through our website. Step through the magic doorway to MoM’s one-of-a-kind educational environment that guides users on a fun and informative trip through the process of conception, gestation, and birth. The room is constructed in a way that hidden clues lead visitors through the journey of life. The red room has been curated by museum director Martha Joy Rose with art objects contributed by Jessica Caldas, Amy Wolf and Leroy Gehres.
Exhibits – The Factory, 2023-2024
May-August 2024: ‘A Womb of Our Own – Seeing Red’. This sculpture is envisioned as the first stage of development for our forthcoming ‘Escape Womb Experience’ and also as the kick off to our ‘We Build St Pete’ Fundraiser. The sculpture assemblage includes the vision of MoM curator Martha Joy Rose with major contributions using ‘Tired Bodies’ Sculptures by Jessica Caldas, Amy Wolf wearable art sculpture ‘Red’, and contributions for the ‘sperm & egg wall’ by Leroy – the King of Art. Both experiential and sculptural, the room allows one person to enter at a time and sit in soft surroundings with the sound of a heartbeat pulsing. The sculpture breathes via a small winch and is tactile as well as symbolic. At a time in our history when many claim rights over women’s bodies, we emphasis the call for those who want to demand autonomy and a ‘womb of our own’.
June- July 2024: Geography of a Woman: Interiors – we’re all pink inside; featuring works by Christen Clifford and PRIDE Art by Molly Duff-Clarke, Lil’ Diki. Clifford is a feminist performance artist, mother, curator and writer whose work has been seen at The Lewyn Allyn Museum of Art, The Newark Museum of Art, The New Museum, to name a few as well as London, Budapest, and Slovenia. Residencies include The Museum of Motherhood, Some Serious Business, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her limited edition risograph artbook BabyLove was acquired by the Thomas J Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Molly A. Duff-Clarke is a ceramic artist living and working out of St. Petersburg Florida. Using clay, Molly constructs figures that challenge the viewer’s notion of body and humor. Molly received her MFA from the University of South Florida in 2023, where she was the recipient of the MFA Excellence Award [CLICK ON IMAGE LEFT TO SEE MORE]
May is Saint Petersburg Month of Photography in collaboration with the Museum of Motherhood presents the exhibition MOTHER LENS: Four Visions of Motherhood: Mikaela Martin, Jena Love, Águeda Sanfiz, and Angelika Kollin, present their reflections on motherhood with very distinctive voices that range from the visual personal journal, the photojournalistic essay, conceptual photography, and fine art portraiture.
May 2024 MoM Conference – ‘Fabric of Life’ by Courtney Kessel, is a large-scale weaving of household objects that challenges viewers to contemplate the accumulation of possessions in the context of parenting. This floor-to-ceiling sculpture is comprised of things saved by the artist, and items donated or loaned from local communities. It references our shared memories and borderlines on excess, prompting reflections on our role in capitalism. By shining a light on the collective experiences of parenting, Fabric of Life advocates for increased support for reproductive and domestic labor. The sculpture invites families to consider the significance of objects, questioning the values placed on material possessions versus carework, and encourages introspection on memories, attachments, and the sometimes excessive nature of our lifestyles.
May MoM Conference, 2024 – The Bag Ladies with Judy Lyons Schneider & Alice Harrison. Using shopping bags as a symbol of the role of women as primary shoppers in the 1950s the Tee Shirt collection (suspended from a laundry line exhibit) includes images from the boxed collection of ephemera, memorabilia, and books.
Feb-April 2024: Threads of Connection- MoM conference featuring: sorry/not sorry; confronting mother (and) blame- healing and resistance in contemporary culture and beyond– featuring the Mother Tree by Helen Hiebert.‘The Womb Project’ by Madison Hendry, is a 9 month long documentation that explores the physical changes artist, Madison Hendry experienced throughout her first pregnancy. By crocheting around herself during this period, she creates a “womb-like” soft sculpture, which protects and comforts her, just as her womb protects and comforts her growing baby.
December-January ’23-2024: The Mother Tree is a seven-foot tall installation by Helen Hiebert made of silk and handmade paper. Helen is an internationally acclaimed artist, author and educator. The Mother Tree is profoundly impactful, fragile, and represents the connection we have to our families, our communities, and to the earth. The sculpture features silk tendrils woven from breast to floor inspired by the artist’s nursing experience. Her roots are made of yarn have been crocheted by over 400 participants around the world and then donated, along with personal stories, along with affirmations for a better, brighter world. Mother Tree is illuminated from the interior. At the museum, we remind visitors that this light is symbolic of the light each of us holds and the light that MoM aims to share with attendees. In 2023, we acquired the Mother Tree for our permanent collection. Thanks to all those who donated to fund the Mother Tree in the interest of preserving her legacy. MORE
November 2023- January 2024 Mother; The Job (MTJ)-featuring the works of Alexia Nye Jackson along with multidisciplinary community narratives. Building Human Capital, Building Human Beings is a multi-media exhibit that includes black and white photos of the jobs mothers perform, writings by mothers and children, and other integrated art forms. These combine to portray the day-to-day life of mothers and the economic systems in which care-work is managed. Mother the Job has been part of MoM’s primary collection on loan to the Museum of Motherhood since 2011. Alexia participated in the ARM Conference at York University in Canada in 2008 and then the exhibit traveled to Museum of Motherhood, NYC in 2011. Following that, the exhibit traveled to the MOM Art Annex, St Pete FL(2016-2023) and finally The Factory 2023-24: Extracted pieces of the exhibit have been shown at venues such as The Oakland Museum in California and at The Women’s Media Center in New York City, highlighting the exhibit’s short film, All Day. The main theme present in Alexia’s message driven art is the economic value of the work of mothers.
Sept- Oct 2023: Motherhood in Motion; action & embodiment – featuring the art of Amy Wolf. Amy’s ‘wearable artwork’ collection’s theme of “reincarnation/transmutation” is based on her practice of transforming found, reclaimed and ordinary materials into something unexpected. She has shown her work both locally and nationally since 2018 and was a 2023 Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist grantee, as well as a 2021 emerging Florida CraftArt artist. In 2022. Amy was also the recipient of both an individual artist grant from The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and a Gobioff Foundation microgrant. Finally, we are happy to share the news that Amy has been selected to be our Artist in Residence beginning October, 2023- Spring 2024 at the MOM Art Annex. This exhibit at The Factory, also included the seesaw; practicing balance & cooperation in a civil society, and the Founding Mothers (of sociology and beyond) exhibits.
2021 – Polly Wood articulates the significance of trees within her own vision of the sacred feminine.She writes: “Trees are symbolic, metaphoric providing relationship, meaning and inspiration. Cross-culturally, trees are associated with the feminine principle, as well as with knowledge, life, cycles, time, and the connecting matrix between earth, water and sky.”
She explains, the relationship between trees and the ways in which “trees are deeply embedded in human consciousness and, physiologically, embodied within the womb of pregnant mothers.”
Her descriptions of the manner in which the placenta is “the only organ a human grows when needed – in order to support, nourish and sustain a human life.” Images of the “umbilical cord representing the trunk, and the exposed blood vessels acting as branches,” are included in these early presentations.
Mother Artist
Mother-made art recognizes the works and endeavors of those making fine and performing arts who are self-identified mothers and those whose work is impacted by, or is focused on, experiences of pregnancy, birth, care-work, fertility, loss, adoption, fostering, surrogacy, and m/otherhood inclusive of all reproductive identities. This includes artistic interpretations highlighting the lifespan of makers of maternal experience, action, matrescence, and embodiment, within personal and relationally organized emotions, biologies, technologies, and behaviors.
Permanent Collection
In fact, we have been doing this since 1997 when we first identified a ‘mother’s art movement’ through the MomsRock legacy pioneered by the band Housewives On Prozac (1997), then through the formation of the International Festival Series MaMaPaLooZa (2002), which evolved to include our first New York Non-Profit; Motherhood Foundation Inc. (2005), and finally through our creation of our Florida Non-Profit MOM Art Annex (2019) and our ongoing work through the Museum of Motherhood. Since those early days, we have proudly participated in the active development of a body of work inspired by the experiences of the people at the center of the m/other, mothering, and motherhood experience.
2017-21 COLLAB – The Museum of Motherhood the ProCreate Project and MoM Egg Literary Review (MER) launched a monthly international exchange of ideas and art beginning in 2015. This discourse has intersected with artists from around the world to better explore the wonder and the challenges of motherhood. Using words and art to connect new pathways between the academic, the para-academic, the digital, and the real, as well as the everyday: the Art of Motherhood is made manifest. MoM continues to add to her collections.
In 2019 the Richard Saltoun Gallery mounted a show titled Matrescence curated by Catherine McCormack, academic and expert in the field of maternal themes in art. This two-part exhibition explored maternal experience and subjectivity. The exhibit features two prominent works which are part of the Museum of Motherhood’s permanent collection. The Helen Knowles (pictured back wall) pixilated still of from a You Tube home birth titled ‘The Natural Way of Birth’ (2012) was acquired in 2013 at the discretion of its creator. Jo Spence’s photograph Remodeling Photo History (1981-81) is a key series that Jo Spence made in collaboration with Terry Dennett in an attempts to deconstruct some of the assumed and institutionally accepted genres of photography: the portrait, landscape, and still life to name a few. MoM acquired this piece in 2022. Link to Exhibit
2011-2023 – Mother the Job has been part of MoM’s main collection on permanent loan to the Museum of Motherhood since 2011 by artist and creator Alexia Nye Jackson. Alexia began developing MOTHER: THE JOB in 2002, receiving a great deal of community support and interest. Extracted pieces of the exhibit have been shown at venues such as The Oakland Museum in California and at The Women’s Media Center in New York City, highlighting the exhibit’s short film, All Day. The main theme present in Alexia’s message driven art and live concept pieces is the economic value of the work of mothers, embracing all mothers – in the home and out of it. MTJ is currently on display at the MoM Art Annex in St. Petersburg, FL.
2016 MoM Conference – Manhattan College with the Procreate Photozine Archive
2010 (Online): Polly Wood is a multidisciplinary artist who creates song, visual art, dance, and writing which embodies and explores the role of the Sacred Feminine in global culture. Polly encourages and celebrates expressions and perspectives on the Sacred Feminine. It is said that ‘She Is Everywhere’… will you look for her with me?
Polly Wood, For Museum of Motherhood; Sacred Feminine Exhibit, Full Exhibit PDF
Residencies, Student Projects, Resources, etc. LINK
Student Project by Giavanna Hahn – Mother Made Art
2022 Online: nteractive Not-Quite-Ready-For Prime Time, Student Project on Art Herstory. Giavanna Hahn invites you to contribute to this ongoing project beginning May 2023. This project, undertaken in the Fall of 2022, is an interactive Art Map intended to be a collaborative project which may be added to. The map attempts to trace a timeline of mother -made art. Contact us at INFO@MOMmuseum.org if you would like to contribute (Ongoing). Log into Figma, create an account. Request permission to edit our shared file: Info is below.
This is an introduction for future editors of the Museum of Motherhood Family Tree of
artists, mothers, feminists, and all in between. Below are instructions for adding the pictures and
stories submitted through the form to add to the continuous timeline. Reading through this
project you will find introductory information of contributors to the feminist art scene that can
inspire you for further research. The big idea of this project is to create an expansive family tree
of individuals, from all over the world, that align with the mission of the Museum of
Motherhood. This is a perpetual timeline of feminists who are adding to the documentation of the
feminist movement with the goal of creating a solid idea of what it means to be a mother in
today’s society. FIGMA INSTRUCTIONS TO PARTICIPATE and contribute to this online exhibit.
From 2016- 2022, the Museum was located in the MOM Art Annex non-profit and home of founder Martha Joy Rose. Rose is a member of the Historic Artist Enclave of Kenwood. Click on link below to see exhibits as they were in St. Petersburg until our move to the Factory in the fall of 2023.
