The Annual Academic MoM Conference takes place this weekend, March 24-26 on Zoom and in person in St. Petersburg, FL. This annual event has been ongoing since 2005 with participants around the globe spearheading research, art, and autoethnography on women, mothers, families (and men), since its inception.
Some of this pioneering work has been featured in the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS). All of this work has been highlighted within academic institutions. This year, however, the privately-funded conference is taking place in a modified-hybrid setting. As the ramifications of the pandemic take its toll, as women push back on hard contractions of basic human rights, and as mother’s struggle to survive and thrive, MoM is not without its struggles.
Specifically, the ongoing work of development of the museum initiative regularly encounters seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Like every non-profit, we struggle with funding for our ongoing needs and growth. We implement plans for progress and experience push-back from unseen sources, or suffer from public attitudes that wish to ignore the history of women, the stories of mothers, and the invisible labor of caregivers. Yet, still we persist.
We are not without successes, even in the midst of challenges. The Mother Tree fundraiser is exceedingly close to being finalized. Only $4,000 to go! Together we can reach that goal! Additionally, our infrastructure is growing with team Salesforce facilitating new levels of internal organization here at the non-profit MOM Art Annex. We have over a dozen volunteers from around the world working on a variety of museum initiatives and exhibitions (Pictured below). And, last, but not least, forty presenters sharing their research and expertise at this year’s Reproductive Landscapes MoM Conference this weekend representing work from Israel, the US, South Africa, England and more. We look forward with excitement to hearing their voices, seeing their work, and celebrating their achievements. MoM is about making women’s work visible!
If you are interested in joining us online or in person for any portion of the conference, we ask three things:
These pieces attempt to make visible a feminist narrative of infertility as a challenge to traditional modes of reproduction and patriarchal conventions of a “natural” maternal subject. During fertility treatment you are situated within biological and cultural ideas of gestation, but embody a seemingly empty, craving, sub-maternal form, in an ongoing process of becoming. Reminiscent of the visualising technologies to which we have become so accustomed throughout the reproductive period, these images do not show a uterine projection, but the outside of the abdomen. There is an impenetrable surface, marked with the umbilicus (belly button) as a symbol of the originary maternal connection, now striving to mother another. With a body full of hormones and a mind exhausted by constant thoughts of an unattainable state of pregnancy, the innocent platitudes you endure over this time remain monotonous and hollow in their own embodied emptiness.
We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist in Residence, Marin Sardy! Marin is a critically acclaimed author who is currently working on her second novel.
Headshot of Marin Sardy
Q: What is your connection to m/otherhood as an artist?
A: I love the way this question is phrased, with the word that highlights both “motherhood” and “other-hood.” I’m a writer of memoir, personal essays, and other forms of creative nonfiction, and my connection to both of the above concepts centers on my explorations of mental health, caregiving, and disability justice. As the daughter and sister of two people who struggled with serious, chronic mental illness, I wrote my first memoir, The Edge of Every Day, to examine the ways that I have strived to understand their experiences, worked to help them, and been shaped by loss. My current work is more focused on dismantling the deeply ingrained cultural attitudes that continue to prevent people from seeking and receiving effective, respectful mental health care. I’d like to add too that, while I haven’t written about it, I am also a stepmother. In both of these roles, I am and have been “mother-adjacent” in ways that I believe ought to be honored and valued in the face of the too-narrow box that motherhood has often been confined to.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish during your residency?
A: I plan to make as much progress as I can on my second book, which folds together stories from the lives of two very different women who lived with long-term psychosis: an art photographer whose work I admire, and my mother. I am currently focused on completing a full draft of the portions that relate to my mother, and my role as a daughter who was pushed into, and later embraced, acting as a caregiver for her. I’m interested in questions such as: What does it mean to be a caregiver in a mental health context, when the work involved is so often intangible? What kind of support might have helped both of us to live our lives more fully and safely? And what does this mean for me, as a daughter who spent so much time mothering a mother who had, in my youth, so dramatically failed to mother me? What (if anything) did my mother owe me, and what was it fair or unfair to ask of her?
Q: What led you to MoM and the residency program here?
A: I discovered Mom when I saw former MoM resident Tracy Sidesinger’s post on Instagram announcing that she had been accepted for the residency! Having never heard of the organization, I did a bit of research and quickly decided to apply myself. I was inspired by the museum’s desire to promote community and to both explore and support motherhood in all its facets. It just felt like it made sense for me to try to connect with the organization. Tracy in fact had been a student in an online nonfiction writing course I taught through Catapult a few years ago, and I’m grateful that I stayed in touch with her through social media—partly because her fascinating, thoughtful Instagram account is so full of wisdom and depth, and partly because she led me to reach out to MoM.
Continue reading to find out more about Marin.
Marin Sardy is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia (2019). Sardy’s essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, Guernica, the Paris Review Daily, the Missouri Review, and many other journals, as well as in two award-winning photography books. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Sardy has three times had her work listed as “notable” in the Best American series, and she has been awarded residency fellowships at Hawthornden Castle and Catwalk Institute. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and teaches nonfiction writing for Pace University and Authors Publish.
If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”
Many of us have been shocked by recent world developments in the environment, social climate, and in economics. This week’s hurricane was a brutal reminder of just how devastating and close to home natural disasters can be.
Fortunately, MoM made it out of the storm relatively unscathed, but we still have many concerns for our Florida neighbors as well as those in dire situations across the globe.
In times of great upheaval, in addition to reacting appropriately, many of us also take time to examine our lives, our decisions, and current directions. Should I stay? Should I go? What can I do to make a difference?
Right now, while many within a hundred miles will be digging out of debris, and as we conduct our own onsite cleanup, MoM will persevere with a mission of hosting conversations, gatherings, and forums on what is going right, and what is going wrong, on our planet today.
Our recent residency with sociology fellow Amanda Watson, has been postponed due to the effects of Ian, however we will still hold a roundtable focus group on Wednesday, October 5th 7:30-8:30PM EST, on “children in the face of climate change and reproductive inequity.”
Please join us in our online community Zoom. RSVPs are welcome. In the meantime, please do hold strong. MoM Loves You!
We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist in Residence, Amanda Watson! To gain more insight into who Amanda is as a mother-scholar and to better understand her goals here during her residency, Amanda shared the following:
Headshot of Amanda Watson
Q: What do you hope to accomplish during your residency?
A: For the past few years of pandemic-era mothering, my research and writing have been conducted sporadically, in piecemeal ways, and in stressful conditions. I hope to make space for my research and writing in this residency in order to analyze new data with fresh eyes and write about it with renewed vision for my purpose as a writer, scholar, and mother.
Q: What led you to MoM and the residency program here?
A: I shared research on motherhood at the MoM in Manhattan nearly a decade ago as a graduate student before becoming a parent myself. The cozy space and warm interactions with community members and diverse scholars and practitioners made an impression on me I have always been interested in returning to MoM. On a recent visit to New York City, I found out about the residency in Florida and applied immediately. It seems like the perfect offering for artists and academics who need to make space for their creative ideas and practices to flourish, particularly as mothers coming out of pandemic isolation having spent so much time doing caregiving.
Continue reading to find out more about Amanda.
Dr. Amanda Watson’s research explores how caregivers and community activists navigate complex institutional settings in their efforts to effect social change. Her interests include care, labour, disability, media representation of motherhood. She teaches on politics of family, global problems and the culture of capitalism, and power and conflict in Canadian society. Watson is an Associate Member of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. She serves on the editorial board of Gender & Society.
Current projects include Politics of Birthstrike, exploring how young adults reconcile their desires for ethical family life with resurging population control initiatives to reduce their climate footprint by having fewer children; Imagine Kin Project, investigating how young adults talk about their future relations in the context of interlocking crises; and Politics of Social Justice Parenting, new research exploring the experiences of parents of young children through pandemic closures and trends in parenting.
If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”
This September the Museum of Motherhood is extremely pleased to welcome two new amazing people to our fall semester team. Please join us in our growing excitement to get to work on some great new projects in grant writing and art-sourcing as we dive into more about moms’ lives and work.
My name is Jade Jemison. I’m a 2nd-year MFA student on the Nonfiction track at USF. I write about relationships, reproductive health and treatment, culture, how trauma manifests in adulthood, and the effects of religious upbringings. I also study mother-daughter relationships in Black literature. I study how they are portrayed and how the representation of these relationships affects our community and societal expectations of Black daughters. I’m also passionate about discovering ways to support mothers, provide literature education to them, and the process of creating scholarships for mothers who need childcare (while attending school, conferences, writing retreats, etc).
In this grant writing internship, I’d love to learn about grant writing as a field: how to research grants, how to apply for grants (both in the process and writing), how to manage and reapply for grants, how to identify grants that fit a specific criteria, and how to evaluate grants. I’d love to gain more skills in this area.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome
Tori Wright – Bio: I am a 26 year old mother of a one year and pregnant with our next little one coming soon. I have a Bachelors degree in Anthropology from Ohio University and currently working on earning my Masters in Museum Studies from University of Oklahoma. For a couple years after graduating from Ohio University I worked as a cultural resource manager, traveling doing archaeology surveys for a variety of companies. I have worked with young children as a daycare worker of nanny since that position while I got married and started my own family. The journey of motherhood that I have personally been through the past couple years has changed my life in ways I could have never imagined. I have seen my sister, friends and close family members become mothers throughout my life, but nothing compares to going through it yourself. I am excited to work with MoM to see how this journey has changed others. As well as working to push the boundaries especially in these enlightened days of what the world thinks motherhood is. The journey is different for anyone that goes through it and art is a wonderful way to be able to express the individual stories as well show the world what it really means to be a mother.
*If you are a mother artist making art, literature, music, or scholarship about your experiences, please write to us. We are working on a schedule of presentations throughout the 2022-23 year.
We’ve got our plan of action: MoM needs to focus on FINANCIALS moving forward.
OUR ACTION ITEM: It’s all about the money! Throughout the years, many teams and individuals have helped to develop the MoM vision; its mission, its programs, and its outreach. I have strived to do my best, bringing this into the world because of a deep personal commitment to mothers everywhere – the labor they perform, their experiences, their hearts and a passion for the artistic and academic study of mothers and m/otherhood.
I moved MoM from New York City to St. Petersburg with the intention of seeing it grow and thrive after we were unable to secure a next-level space in Manhattan. Now that I have the flexibility to focus on this project full-time, I plan to solidify relationships in St. Petersburg while cultivating my personal live/work space which is now the non-profit MoM Art Annex.
The Annex serves as an incubator project for making the MoM vision to come alive in Florida. In order to do this, attention needs to shift. To that end, the next year will be almost exclusively focused on building our coffers through memberships, donations, grants, and partnerships. We must do this if MoM is going to thrive. Please join me in this affirmation and keep this top of mind and action! This is how we put M/otherhood on the Map. Please HELP US TRIVE! Join one of our many initiatives.
It’s Not Like We’re Slackers – It’s Been a Busy Summer!
Pictured here, summer interns Sarah Akomoh and Teddy Friedline
Intern, Mary Noah. BIG shout out for her work with MoM this summer. She has reconfigured our Wisdom Sharing Document and is finishing up our Grant Sharing Document. In addition, the website has been updated with all our new information as well as our work together honing in on ‘mission‘ etc. I believe the work is well-reflected on the site! Lastly, she leaves us with new logos and a Social MediaCampaign in place. Her diligence has greatly improved our infrastructure in Florida, picking up where our New York interns left off six years ago! THANK YOU MARY!
Intern, Sarah Akomoh contributed to our Grants Database and we will be submitting to the Pinellas Foundation this week. Sarah also got MoM listed here at Florida Arts Axis THANK YOU SARAH!
Intern, Teddy Friedline has been reworking language on the JourMS site as well as the SocMS site. This has enabled appropriate updates since the project was created in 2015. Teddy will be wrapping up a social media campaign about these initiatives with us in the coming weeks. THANK YOU TEDDY!
Intern, Emma Andrews has been working on a book project for Queering Parenting. She is endeavoring to create materials that will facilitate both a child’s perspective on identity as well as adult’s perspectives. Her presentation will be available online and she will present her work on August 22nd in our Online Community Portal 7-8:30PM EST. JOIN US IF YOU CAN!
Intern, Rithik Promod begins delivering his Fertility Goddess exhibit this week. We are LOOKING FORWARD!
We hosted 4 onsite Residencies this summer at the MoM Art Annex ranging from fine arts, to print making, to writing. SHOUT OUT TO: Jessica Caldez, Tara Blackwell, Gloria Munoz, and Rachael Grad.
Elena Rodz – Website Manager, has been so impactful, helping to redesign, upgrade, and empower our website infrastructure. Her work with us is ongoing, her expertise is in the museum and non-profit marketplace, and we are all better for her involvement! THANK YOU ELENA!
Deborah Gelch – Strategic Advisor and I continue to iron out technical details of our new infrastructure modalities including Salesforce, Constant Contact, and Quickbooks integration. We are poised for memberships and tweaking the design elements. On October 21, we collaboratively host our first community cocktail event on behalf of MoM in St. Petersburg. YAY DEBORAH!
Nicole Mussleman- JourMS Editor, has been hard at work on the editorial aspects of the Journal of Mother Studies. We have more submissions than ever before and are still planning on our September 1 online publication date. Nicole also won the very prestigious award at the Hemingway Society Conference 2022. YAY NICOLE!
I will be submitting recommendations to Tracy Sidesinger, Residency Coordinator; and Zabrina Shkurti, Living Board President this week, looking at ways we might maximize MoM’s mission with existing programs. Kasia Nowaski and I will be re-connecting in September over online course development.
We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist in Residence, Gloria Muñoz! During her residency, Gloria hopes to focus on developing her novel which is set in 1940s Colombia during the period known as La Violencia. With elements of fabulism, historical fiction, and eco-poetics, the story of two sisters who are displaced by violence and left to fend for themselves is a testament to how we can experience wonder, and even magic, after loss.
Continue reading to find out more about Gloria.
Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian-American writer, literary translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy and writing. She was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2019 Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. She has also been honored by the Highlights Foundation’s 2022 Diverse Verse Fellowship, the Macondo Workshop, Lumina’s Multilingual Nonfiction Writing Award, a Las Musas Mentorship for Latine and nonbinary authors, a New York State Summer Writers Institute Fellowship, a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Muse Award, a Creative Pinellas Grant, the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Prize, the Bettye Newman Poetry Award, a Gen Yes Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award, a Think Small to Think Big Artist Grant, and a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Jim Rolston Professional Development Grant. Gloria was part of the inaugural Tin House YA workshop and has presented her writing, research, and advocacy work at conferences, colleges, public schools, and book festivals across the United States and Latin America. Her writing has appeared in Puerto del Sol, VIDA Review, Acentos Review, Lumina, the Rumpus, Yes Poetry, Juke Joint, Best New Poets, Sweet, Burrow Press, Cosmonauts Avenue, Entropy, Wildness, Cagibi, and elsewhere. Muñoz is also the author of the chapbook Your Biome Has Found You. She holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the University of South Florida. A proponent of cross-disciplinary collaboration, Gloria has worked alongside botanists, musicians, dancers, historians, classicists, visual artists, conservationists, and neuroscientists. She is a co-founder of Pitch Her Productions and she is one-half of the songwriting team Moonlit Musíca. Most days she writes, teaches, and works with environmental nonprofits.
Also, Announcing This Week:
MoM is also pleased to announce, a conversation about the film, Adventures in Miscarriage with director Cheryl Furjanic, who presented her film trailer at the MoM Conference in 2022 – in person in St. Petersburg in March!
It will be up until July 31st. Then, on Wednesday, July 27th at 6:30pm ET, she will be hosting a conversation about the film and the current state of miscarriage care. Here’s the link for that: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1xNcM1coSLmlMZAJCKXDlA
We are excited to support and view this important film which offers a perspective into this generally underreported experience!
If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”
Rachael Grad is a mom of three and former lawyer who has studied and worked in the US, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and Toronto. Grad left practicing law to study painting full-time at the New York Studio School and New York University (NYU) before transferring to OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Trained as an observational painter, Grad has focused on colourful painting that blurs the distinction between abstract, figurative, and representational styles.
Recently her art practice has expanded to incorporate digital painting and collage to further recreate her observational drawing and painting. Grad combines her experience as a mother, former lawyer, and traveler into her artwork, creating art that reflects parenting moments. Her current art series include “Motherhood Hit Me Like A Train” works on paper that use trains as paintbrushes and “Mommy Mayhem” digital collages and abstract expressionist paintings.
Grad’s artwork has been shown in solo and group shows in Washington, DC, New York City, Venice, Italy, and the Toronto area. She holds degrees from Brandeis University, Duke University School of Law, and Sciences Po in Paris, France. She earned a BFA with Distinction in Painting and Drawing from OCAD University in May 2022 as the Governor General Academic Medal and Mrs. W.O. Forsyth winner. This fall Grad will start a Master’s in Fine Arts program at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mayhem Bunny
Elephant and Doll
Artist Statement
Motherhood is mayhem. When I became a parent, carving out time and space to create (not just people but artwork) became essential.
My current art practice is driven by an obsessive-compulsive need to document my three kids and their perpetually changing debris (meaning their messes of toys, books, clothing, and crafts). Daily household and art routines, rituals, and schedules reflect my attempt to reign in the chaos of parenting. Numbers, habits, and repetition are crucial to my sanity and survival.
There are 52 weekends in each year when my children’s school, daycare, or summer camp are closed for 65 agonizing hours in a row. To symbolize the slow passing of parenting time, I created 52 digital collages each containing 65 artworks layered together in photoshop. The artwork layers include my postcard drawings, abstract colour paintings, and paint mark experiments with toys.
Recent Mommy Mayhem series paintings are loosely based on these collages and blur the distinction between representation and abstraction. Gestural paint marks use the bright colours found in toys and messes.
In my Motherhood Hit Me Like a Train series, rolling a toy train across my artwork as a not-so subtle metaphor for being a mother artist. Toys have overtaken my home and my artwork, and they are always in mind and in my way. For my abstract watercolour on paper artworks, I reverse the ubiquitous toy train and turn it into a paintbrush.
Repetitive marks starting from observation are a way of building up unclear layers to form abstraction. Loosely based on the digital collages, I paint colourful abstract portraits of stuffed animals and toys that serve as transitional comfort objects for children as they grow and learn independence from parents.
My painting subjects reflect moments of motherhood, and my painting technique is a reference to, and mocking of, art history movements such as the machismo of the Abstract Expressionist painters. I am conceiving a visual language informed by abstract expressionism, playful mark making, and the contradiction between my dream of control and order versus my reality of constant pandemonium and mess at home. Routines, patterns, and symbolic numbers are expression in my art.
I research contemporary parent artists and their artwork including Mary Kelly (Post-Partum Document. 1973-79), Monica Bock (Maternal Exposure (or,don’t forget the lunches), 1999-2000), and Paul Campbell (Koosh Series and Remote Control Series). When painting, I think of Denyse Thomasos’ powerful gestural marks, Susanna Heller’s experimental studio practice, and Amy Silliman’s abstraction.
Museum of Motherhood Artist Residency Project
During her MOM Residency, Rachael will curate an online art exhibition of artwork made by artist mothers who manage to create artwork and keep up their studio practice while parenting. The show will include weekly blog posts interviewing participating artists to explore their work and parent experiences. During the period of her artist residency at MOM, Rachael will attempt to create a drawing or painting each day related to her “Mommy Mayhem” or “Motherhood Hit Me Like a Train” series.
You can view more of Rachael’s artwork at RachaelGradArt.com
If you are interested in connecting with Rachael, you can find her on social media @RachaelGradArt
We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist, Tara Blackwell. Tara is a mixed media pop artist leveraging the tension between fun and social commentary in her artwork.
Continue reading to find out more about Tara and her journey.
I am a mixed media pop artist living and working in Connecticut. In my work, I play with bold colors, layers, and texture, often incorporating nostalgic pop culture to explore contemporary social issues. At a glance, my paintings depict a childlike innocence, but there is usually underlying social commentary. While I have fun exploring imagery from my childhood, at the same time, I am delving into insecurities that go way back to being an awkward girl in middle school – that “picked last in gym class” feeling. My “Saturday Morning” series is all about resiliency and perseverance. Remember digging in the cereal box as a kid to find that prize? These little characters are symbolically shown in positions of independence, strength, and success. The process of creating this work has personally helped me to conjure up my own inner strength and to envision my “prize” within my reach.
In the Summer of 2020, like many of us, my daughter (Lila) and I spent a lot of time together indoors due to the pandemic. Lila was 12 and in her first year of middle school at a new school and navigating the typical challenges that I remember all too well from that age. But the isolation and fear of getting sick was an unexpected turn. Then—we saw the horrific murder of George Floyd; Another brutal killing (at the hands of the police) of a human being who looks like us. Black Lives Matter protests erupted stronger and louder than ever and living downtown in a major city, we could just step outside and be part of the movement. Together, Lila and I began to pour our feelings into our art.
I was still working on my Saturday Morning series when Lila suggested the use of Powerpuff Girls, a cartoon linked to her generation, not mine. I had been focusing on my own childhood memories in this work, but when I started exploring Lila’s suggested reference, my focus shifted to her experience at that moment. As a mother, I not only thought about how I could protect her but how could I help her to discover her own voice and inner strength. My Saturday Morning series shifted direction and I tapped into my fierceness as a mother– as a Black mother of a Black girl. The Powerpuff Girl painting became the piece titled “Justice Now.” I consider that piece to be the beginning of a powerful collaboration between me and Lila.
If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”
I could begin this report so many ways, but let me start by sharing a recent full-circle experience.
Last month, I received an internship application through our online portal. The inquiry came from the daughter of the woman who used to manage the MOM website as well as the MaMaPalOOza website in early 2000. So, this intern applicant turned out to be Emma Andrews, and her mother, Amy Andrews, brought her daughter to our New York location when she was only about ten years old.
This totally rocked my world. So, let me please share Emma’s bio with you now and welcome her to her summer internship with MOM. Full circle:
Emma Andrews (they/she) is entering their junior year at Binghamton University. She is a history major and mathematical sciences minor. She is pursuing a career as a public programmer in museums, but wouldn’t be unhappy teaching calculus either! They prefer to focus on all areas of history, rather than hone in on one speciality. In her free time, Emma loves to read in their hammock and is a bit of a movie buff (although with admittedly terrible taste in films). They are particularly passionate about queer studies and are looking forward to integrating that passion into their culminating project during her internship at the Museum of Motherhood.
Emma will be working this summer creating a series of resources regarding queerness in families. There will be resources created for both parents and children, in hopes of promoting and fostering more productive and respectful conversations about the queer community. The children’s presentation will feature child friendly language and concepts to help educate children on different family types and identities. Her internship portion aimed at parents will feature many of the same definitions as the children’s presentation but expanded, as well as “how to’s” regarding having respectful conversations with their own children about queer topics, such as identity, pronouns, and the potential for their own future families. Additionally, they will be putting together a short research project for those interested in the history of queer studies. Their research will be a guide through the evolution of the queer identity, with an emphasis on modern changes within these ideas, particularly through a legislative lens.
During their time at MOM, Emma hopes their project will provide help to those in need of queer resources and education, especially in states affected by anti-gay legislation. She wants these resources to be available for anyone of any age or role, and available in any location at all times. If the government or schools cannot provide the education necessary to reflect a diverse community, they want their resources to do that job.
Emma Andrews
Now for Extensive Updates! Read on:
There’s been a lot of activity at MOM over the last several months. I thought it might be good to connect everyone and keep you all updated.
Please join me in welcoming several new team members.
Deborah Gelch, a senior executive with a wealth of experience in non-profits, administration, and fundraising has joined us as our new “Strategic Advisor”. She brings with her knowledge of Salesforce, specific technological advances in CRM management, and a windfall of support including fundraising initiatives. We have been meeting weekly over the last several months and she has already imported a host of information into our database. Together, we are aiming for an October 1 fun-raiser in St. Petersburg.
Welcome too, our new website developer, Elena Rodz, who will be working on WordPress updates, our online store, and memberships moving forward. She is currently updating the MOM Team page. Please, do look for updates soon.
Kasia Nowackijoined MOM this year in the capacity of ‘Educational Liaison and Development’. To that end, she has been strategically working on multiple avenues of MOM growth internally and in collaboration with other institutions. She also facilitates tech at our monthly online events, happening the 22nd of each month.
Donna Lewis, architect, artist, and native New Yorker has joined our Executive Fundraising Board. This is hugely exciting as our goals for this active committee are top of mind and imperative for new growth. We hope to have others join Donna on this important new endeavor.
Since fall 2021, we have welcomed three onsite Residencies in October, December, and April. The summer will welcome two additional Artist Residents, and two more in the fall of 2022, plus the three last summer for a total of ten, even in the midst of COVID!
We also welcome four new interns, and another USF graduate student starting in the fall. Our summer interns are: Emma Andrews, Sarah Akomoh, Teddy Friedline, andMary Noah. A hearty welcome to each! They will all be working on a variety of initiatives including grant writing, teaching tools, journal publication, and social media.
MOM participated in the AEHK Studio Tour in St. Pete featuring a newly built vestibule for seeing exhibits from the front entrance. As an artist, I was able to enjoy two artist-grants (one for public art in Seminole Park and one for editorial help with some of my current writing).
I filed for ‘fictitious name‘ status for MOM (DBA Museum of Motherhood) under our IRS registered 501c3 non-profit MOM Art Annex in Florida. I am also segwaying out of the Motherhood Foundation in NY, as it is redundant to maintain both.
For the purposes of clarity: the MOM Art Annex is currently serving as our incubator of the realization of our own fully functioning, free standing museum structure. Renderings for this vision are online.
Our new ‘Educational Development” Coordinator, Kasia Nowacki and I worked for several months updating the language on the MOM website as well as our internal documents to reflect changing attitudes along with more inclusive language. Our newest intern, Teddy Friedline continues this enterprise at the JourMS website. We are grateful for these efforts.
Kasia and I also made repeated attempts to pioneer projects with Eckerd College. We also reached out to the Museum Studies Department at UF, and began research on USF degrees locally in St. Pete that might coordinate well with MOM’s ongoing activities. I attended the Eckerd College Job Fair for summer internships and we have a few ideas for bringing collaborations to the fore in the fall.
Our annual MOM Conference was a beautiful and smart gathering over Zoom this year. The theme was Creativity for a Cause and the inspiration flowed from a work-in-progress-film on miscarriage to several thematic works on home-site productions during COVID from artists and academics. Thanks to the entire Academic Board for their involvement in this!
We started a *NEW ONLINE COMMUNITY– This is a place to connect and interact. This is where we will host our annual conferences for those who want to attend remotely. This is also where we host ongoing monthly events the 22nd of each month 7-8:30PM EST (Roksana Badruddoja will be with us in June conducting an intergenerational healing workshop), and this is also where we will be building out some of our coursework.
During the month of May, Mary Noah, who is with us for the summer, and comes with some non-profit experience, worked on a rebranding kit for MOM along with a Social Media Calendar. She will pivot to new activities in the coming months.
Our new Living Board 2022 is active too, as we waveLexy Valdes(who began her journey with us as an intern and stayed for THREE years), on her way and wish her the best with her medical school studies. Our newest Living Board members are: Zabrina Shkurti– President, Nicole Musselman– Editor JourMS, and Tracy Sidesinger who returns as our Residency Director.
Finally, I just received word about leading a workshop on New Technologies at the annual FAM (Florida Association of Museums) Conference in September. I think this will spur me on to do more research on tools available to us for online reach. I’m excited to bring updates regarding MOM to this event. The conference takes place in Miami this year and includes hundreds of museum professionals from the state of Florida.
So, what’s the action item here? Big goals here are keeping you updated, letting you witness the progress for yourselves, and bringing team members together in the spirit of MOM.
*IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO YOU THINK MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN US: one of our boards, our new MEMBERSHIP community, pt staff, or MOM development, PLEASE DO SEND THEM OUR WAY: INFO@MOMmuseum.org
