Category: MOM Art Annex

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May is Mother’s Month: Be the Light, Fundraisers & Reasons That Matter

Reasons that matter:

YOU MATTER!

YOUR LOVED ONES MATTER!

OUR PLANET AND WELL BEING MATTER!

It is so easy to lose focus and lose the light, especially when the weight of responsibility, finances, health, and housing carry such inordinate heaviness. Everyday life is feels so complicated. We slog along with a mountain of problems. How can we feel joyous? How can a museum make a difference?

First the good news: Life on earth has always been a challenge. In fact, a LOT of the time LIFE IS HARD. But, each of us has a spark inside. A little bit of light channeled from the solar system of which we are a part. That illumination is what makes each of us incredibly special. Here at MoM, we focus on the light. In fact our motto is informing and inspiring lives. We do that even as we acknowledge all of the issues and challenges facing individuals thinking about becoming parents and as we attempt to reconcile past difficulties with a transformed present.

How do we do that? Every person who steps into our museum experience has an opportunity to discover something amazing about themselves. We sit at the intersection of an enormous energetic infrastructure that connects the past, present, and future of women, mothers, and families. We pride ourselves on a commitment to art, culture, science, history, and activism. We are absolutely devoted to a legacy project that includes all of us. M/otherhood never ends. We are all part of the great cycle. Please join us as we grow together!

We have THREE IMPORTANT INITIATIVES THIS MONTH!

Invite 300 new MoM Members to Join Us: $30 a year – we will mail you a welcome packet with our friendship bracelets and a code for events with special access to exclusive online content. [CLICK]

Join our MOM Directory to share your business, organization, or service with the world! [CLICK]

Help us finalize our purchase of the Mother Tree sculpture. We are so close! Only $4,000 dollars left to go, then we can add her to our forever collection. Donate now, please. [CLICK]

*Sign up in May for a special photography session locally in St. Pete from St.JeanCreative and they will donate 10% back to the MOM Art Annex 501c3 non-profit. [CLICK]

We will announce the winners of the ‘About My Mother’ writing contest in time for Mothers’ Day! Look for a special blog about that!

Join the Museum of Motherhood this May 2023
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Activism Art Blog Caregiving Conferences Education Featured Featured Artists gender International Literature MOM Art Annex motherhood Residency Social Justice Sociology st petersburg USF

New Team Members, Interns, Residencies, Earth Day, Submission Prizes, Oh My!

Spring has sprung! But first, ‘About My Mother:’ Submit your poem or short story about your mother by April 30th for a Mothers’ Day publication with MoM on our Blog, Newsletter and Social Media. Submit via word document, 1,000-2,000 words for the short story/essay. Poems of any length. First prize is $50 for the story. Poem is $25 and the runner up gets love and publication too. Share widely, just one week left! Send to: INFO@MOMmuseum.org

Thank You Authentic Florida for including us on your website as we approach May (Mothers’ Month). MoM is working hard to increase memberships – 300 in the next 3 months! See our special offer and JOIN OUR FLOCK! We are grateful to work with Melanie Lentz-Janney at Authentic Florida towards this mutual goal of sharing information and cool stuff to do in the Sunshine State. Authentic Florida.

Welcome New MoM Facilitator Sierra Clark

Welcome Sierra Clark our new Empowerment Facilitator at MoM. Her workshop designs- based on her chapter “From Sweet Nothings to Sweet Everything” in Repair Of The Black Family as part of the edited collection by Nayyirah Muhammad- are transformational. We are all better for her leadership and strong voice! More about Sierra at www.sierraclark.life

INTERNS

April has us bustling with a new group of amazing interns from around the world. Please welcome these amazing international collaborators (from left to right):

Audrey Paquet-Frey: My name is Audrey Paquet-Frey, I’m a 32-year-old Master’s degree student from the TEMA+ program 2021-2023, an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree program. I am currently in Paris at the EHESS completing my degree. Prior to this program, I did a bachelor’s degree at the Université Laval in Canada, Québec in historical sciences and heritage studies in museology, ethnology, and archeology. During my studies, I worked at the Canadian museum of history from 2015 until 2020, where I worked in the photographic archives divisions and the documentation of artefacts divisions. So why am I doing an internship at the Mom Museum? Simply because in the last years I’ve developed an interest in museum communities and especially now with the new museum definition from ICOM (International Councils of Museums) redirecting their attention to communities and the public, I felt it was time to explore that avenue. After this Master’s, I hope to be able to create an online museum directed at and for different communities of women to empower them through their immaterial heritage and their collective memory. I would like to give a voice to different communities of women through online exhibits. I hope to learn a lot from this internship and to be able to apply it to my future projects.

Megan Hsu: I will be assisting MoM with identfying, researching, and applying for local or national grants in order to assist with fundraising efforts that can further assist MoM in being able to achieve its goals and create deeper connections with the local community. A native of Tampa, FL, Megan (she/her) is in her final year at the University of Florida, where she is pursuing a double major in International Studies and Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics along with a minor in European Union studies. A lifelong student, she believes that education never ends and is always eager to learn more about the world around her. She has worked with non-profit organizations in the past and is excited to devote her skills to MoM and its mission of educating and celebrating women and mothers of all reproductive identities.

Clea Dobrish: I am Clea Dobrish, a junior at Eckerd College studying Sociology and Women and Gender Studies. Especially with the political climate, it is more important than ever to join together and educate ourselves and others about feminism and gender studies, this is my main goal through this internship. Working with the EC Feminist club on campus has ignited a passion in me to further my education on the matter as well as helped me find my calling in helping people desexualize and accept how amazing their bodies are through the events done on campus. I hope to bridge the gap between Eckerd and MoM by helping others get internships here and collaborating with the feminist club. I also hope to learn about and assist with grant writing for MoM.

REMOTE RESIDENCY AT MoM

Yes, it is possible to do a Remote Residency at MoM. It’s also possible to have a remote internship at MoM as well! Apply through our website on the appropriate page, work with your institution, and make progress on your project through interactions with the Museum of Motherhood and Director, Martha Joy Rose.

Christina Doonan PhD: is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Gender Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her research interests include the politics of health, human rights, the right to health, and motherhood and parenting in the context of chronic illness.

My current project, “Mothering Through Cancer,” explores how breast cancer affects motherhood for mothers of young children, and how mothering young children affects the experience of cancer. Taking my own experience as a starting point, I am interested in how idealized versions of motherhood work in both directions, influencing what mothers expect of themselves as they experience cancer and what others expect of mothers—and how this translates into the types of supports that mothers receive (or not).I first presented a portion of this work at the M.O.M. Conference in 2022: “Creativity for a Cause.”I felt invigorated by the supportive feedback I received from the M.O.M. community.Staying in touch with the project has been difficult given the dual demands of work and reproductive labour.My residency with M.O.M. this week allows me to reconnect with and refocus on this project and give it the time that it deserves. Thank you to Joy and Tracy for arranging the details and for welcoming me so warmly. I’m grateful and delighted to be here as part of this vital community! (Christina is pictured about with her husband Lincoln and MoM Director, Martha Joy Rose).

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OPEN CALL: SUBMISSIONS for a special online publication at MoM for our Mothers’ Day Blog.

For a limited time only, OPEN CALL : SUBMISSIONS for a special online publication at MoM for our Mother’s Day May Blog. But first, about the photo here at the top of the page. We inherited an ugly cement wall. What did we do? Make it beautiful! Thank you Batya for your gorgeous residency and ongoing mural work, now viewable in the annex gardens. Read more at the bottom of the blog!

Submit a story about your mother. 1,500-2,000 words or poem (any length).

Our team will review all entries and we will select one special story, one runner up, and one poem for publication online for our May Mother’s Month Blog, social media and Newsletter issue.

The prize is $50 first place only / Poem is a separate award $25

We know you are ALL winners and we are excited to hear your creativity and legacy productions.

Submit by April 30th midnight via email by midnight. Include Title and Bio with Submission in word document: INFO@MOMmuseum.org

THE MONTH OF MARCH RECAP

Community is where it’s at – even as technology rises, we must remember our humanity, our earth bodies, and our mother planet. HAPPY EARTH DAY IN APRIL!

March was busy with gatherings focused on food health, motherhood, sisterhood, meditation, poetry, and outdoor mural making. Thanks to Jeff Herman, Leslie Culbertson, and Yusuke Ouchie from Creative Grape, and gratitude to Localtopia, Winter in the Woods, AEHK Studio Tour, Tombolo Books, YesChefVillage, Gloria Muñoz, our Conference Attendees, Mothers’ Group and MoM Facilitators: Its been a GREAT season for MoM.

Over the course of the past year, we have joined in events with direct engagement opportunities equalling 40,000 + people.

We have partnered with groups from ages 1-80 yrs old that include people in recovery, local high school students, housing insecure individuals, and those seeking education on the subject of healthy food to feminist studies. Those smaller groups, have totaled in the hundreds.

What Next?

Where are the women’s stories and spaces? We are only 10 % of school text books and 13% of museum exhibits.

Our lives are an inspiration. They are a miracle. They are each and everyone great. How can we illuminate the vacuum, fill the voice, reverberate with intention?

Help us honor these stories. Help us keep going. Help us be Visible, Solvent, and Celebrated. We Thank you! We are you! We need you to thrive! Together we are strong, together we rise, together we love. Help us continue our work by becoming a legacy donor.

DONATE

THE ANNUAL ACADEMIC & ARTS CONFERENCE ROCKED!

REPRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES– The conference saw participants from England, Australia, South Africa, Canada, USA, Poland, South America, Israel, Spain, and Ireland. Videos and papers to come. Find out more by accessing the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS) and upcoming announcements about these scholarly works. The CFP for the Journal of Mother Studies is open through April 30th. SUBMIT.

Here are a few concepts to mull over (from my notes):

Can we mother a ghost? Rebecca Marcelina Gimeno

Not every pregnancy results in the birth of a child – Laura Bissell

Human care is anchored in communal activities – Sara Sudhoff

Mothering is invisible – Kate Golding

Batya Weinbaum, b. 1952, is a Jewish American visual artist and award-winning writer from Cleveland Heights, OH and Floyd, VA, and artist-in- residence at MOM Dec 3 2022-Mar 31, 2023. Her first mosaic art project was a feminist installation of fertility and warrior goddesses, Feminina Sube, Isla Mujeres, 2013-2020. A film about this magical shrine to the goddess can be seen on YouTube by typing in Dr. Batya Weinbaum. She got her doctorate at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, founded the journal Femspec, and has spoken frequently at Radical Feminist Perspectives of Women’s Declaration International. More of her art can be seen at goddessvibe.org.

Special Shout Out to Brittany DeNucci & All Our Fab Volunteers!

Special shout out to Brittany DeNucci who stepped in to run tech for us a MoM during the conference. She’s also been hard at work editing the conference videos. We are so grateful for all Brittany’s contributions. THANK YOU to all our incredible interns, volunteers & team members!

KEEP ROCKIN’ IT!

Love, Love, Love,

Martha Joy Rose, Director

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AEHK Art Education Featured Feminism gender History International Internships JourMS Media MOM Art Annex MOM Conference Opportunities Residency st petersburg

Young Feminists Unite

Doesn’t matter where you’re from, social initiatives toward equality and justice continue. Black History Month has presented many opportunities for learning. Here at MoM, we’ve shared information from with our students, partnered to create events putting Black-owned businesses at the center, and continued with a commitment to share broadly and loudly a commitment to empower all humans equally from all walks of life. For example we have shared widely MoM’s proximity of The Woodson African American Museum in St. Pete to MoM and admiration for Carter G. Woodson and his journey. We take that journey to heart and invest similarly in women’s rise within Women’s History Month.

MoM affirms that one person’s security, safety, and serenity need never jeopardize another’s. There is room for everyone to seek harmony on this earth, but not when primitive thinking rules. Mother loves all her children, even if humans fall short of this golden rule all too often.

News of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) failing yet again in its ratification is heartbreaking. The twenty-eighth amendment which bans discrimination based on sex was first introduced in 1923 and was passed by Congress fifty years later, it has yet to be ratified. Subsequent pushes to see it through have failed. It is disappointing to bring this most recent development to your attention on the first day of Women’s History Month after a Federal Appeals Court rejected the case only days ago.

Welcome MoM Projects and Our New Intern: Yana

This spring we have multiple projects in the works. Some are spearheaded by interns from around the world. Dr. Hannah Brockbank (England) is leading a team that includes Laura Gabrielle (USA) and Yana S. (Russia; read more below) towards the first of several online classes, we are developing and hope to be offering at MoM later this year, while Victoria Wright continues research on a breastfeeding exhibit for her final Master’s project with MoM.

Locally, in St. Petersburg, the AEHK Studio Tour takes place on March 18 & 19 all day long. Intrepid visitors can wander Historic Kenwood and see the amazing art studios of its residents, including MoM’s own Martha Joy Rose’s works. Jenilee Dowling leading a Mothers’ Moon Circle on March 21st at 7 PM instead of our regular morning meetup onsite in the garden at 10 AM. All other meetings this month are at the usual time. Then, the weekend of March 24-26 is the Annual Academic & Arts MoM Conference. Presenters from around the world share their work on the changing world of reproductive landscapes. Contact us to fine out more. Stick with us. Lots to come!

Hi everyone! My name is Yana S. I’m a high school graduate who plans to major in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at college, and pursue a social impact career – hopefully in public interest law or public policy work – in the future. I’m confident that my time with the MoM would be a truly transformative experience, and I can’t wait to work in the areas about which I’m truly passionate.

We look forward to bringing you lots of stories about Women’s History (or HERstory) this month!! Stay tuned. Also, we hope to see some of our local friends on Friday, March 3 for YesChefVillage dinner 6-7:30 PM at 538 28th St. N. in St. Pete. The dinners are free. The community is awesome. Meet Chef Omaka and friends. RSVP 877-711-MOMS (6667) pls.

We 3/4s of the way towards purchasing the Mother Tree for our permanent collection! Only $8,000 left to go, with $17K already raised! Help us meet this goal. Join this legacy production today.

We APPRECIATE YOU! Every dollar helps us rise to the occasion of our own success as we prove ourselves as THE destination for the art, science, and history of women, mothers, and families. DONATE NOW!

Thanks to Cait McVey/Spectrum Bay News 9 for the recent news story, March 1, 2023: St. Pete museum celebrates the history of mom. Martha Joy Rose’s new venture for the City of St. Pete is the Mom Museum, carefully curated with all things mother. LINK

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Localtopia, V-Day, YesChefVillage, and More…

Today is V-Day. It’s a time for lovers, a time for mothers, and a time for social change. Valentine’s Day, the holiday, is an age-old tradition. According to historians, Valentine’s Day originated in ancient Rome, stemming from a Pagan celebration called the feast of Lupercalia, a festival of fertility and purification. NPR states:

“The Roman romantics “were drunk and naked.” According to Noel Lenski, a religious studies professor at Yale University, “Young women would line up for the men to hit them.” They believed this would make them fertile. The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day

The festival was made more civilized through subsequent interpretations. Ultimately, the pagan influences were reduced, Christianity took over, and the story of the martyred St. Valentine preaching in Rome was added. The holiday took on new meaning; Less debauched, still fertility, or love-based, and romanticized by people like Shakespeare, it ultimately became the cultural and commercial event we recognized today.

For those romantics who might be focused on learning to love themselves, there are other lessons to be had. For example, coupledom is no longer top priority for some Gen Z and millennials. According to The Knot, post-pandemic trends are leaning towards prioritizing health and wellness over serial dating. In fact, according to statistics 75% of Gen Z are single as opposed to 44% of millennials who are married (source). Additionally, focusing on social movements like BLM and green-sustainability rank high on the list of priorities.

“Through the pandemic, a lot of people have prioritized wellness, particularly in terms of their physical fitness, and their mental fitness, and their consumption habits.”

Source: https://www.theknot.com/content/dating-trends

I guess we have come a long way from the debauched Roman holiday of old. In fact, now we even have pushback with organizations like Eve Ensler’s V-Day, One Billion Rising, an organization begun with “a mass action to end violence against women in human history.” The movement addresses the “staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.”

Today, MoM rises, along with One Billion Rising to honor 10 years of One Billion Rising and 25 years of V-Day. We join in the campaign today in 2023, which has been declared a year of INSPIRATION and ASPIRATION.

According to V-Day, this will be “A year of storytelling, building communities, strengthening solidarity, sharing dreams, planting trees, creating art, honoring women and the earth, and of dancing.”

It is the year MoM will continue “to ENVISION and CREATE new ways of being, seeing, living, loving and connecting. Of raising consciousness and deepening understanding. So that our freedom, our future, is rooted in truth, love, community, earth and body.” (Source: One Billion Rising).

To that end, join our collaboration with YesChefVillage, bringing free, healthy food to communities seeking access to dining resources and connection. This Friday, Feb. 17th, 6-7:30PM will be our second dinner with Chef Omaka and his team. You can write us INFO@MOMmuseum.org to attend, fill out the RSVP form on our website, or just show up!

Then, Saturday, Feb. 18th, come see us at Localtopia in St. Petersburg, FL, a celebration of all things local. Our booth will be in area #7, The Family Village, and we will be sharing more love, more connections, and more information and education about our mission locally. Today, LOVE EVERYBODY! Love, MoM!

  • YesChefVillage
  • Mural Tour
  • YesChefVillage Team
  • YesChefVillage Dinner
  • YesChefVillage Hangin
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Education Events Featured Feminism health History International MOM Art Annex MoM Pop Up Social Justice Sociology st petersburg

Joy Report; V-Day and More in February 2023

February is the month of Black History, V-Day Love, and Susan B. Anthony Day. How do all these things intersect? Let’s try to connect the dots.

Black History month was codified into law in 1986. Championed by Carter G. Woodson, the ‘father of Black history’ with an agenda to promote Black studies, history, and culture, “Woodson’s goal from the very beginning was to make the celebration of Black history in the field of history a ‘serious area of study.” (Source). He spent his whole life working towards this goal.

As it turns out, the Carter G. Woodson African American Museum is 2.7 miles from the MOM Art Annex in the city of St. Petersburg. This is just one more reason St. Pete is an awesome place to develop our mission here in Pinellas County Florida. We sure do appreciate our neighbors. Next time you stop in to visit us, make sure to schedule a visit at the Woodson Museum too!

And now, with the month of love upon us, let’s give a big shout out for February 14th. Might we propose a renewed focus on brotherly and sisterly love this Valentines Day? Might we push back on violence in this wildly radicalized world. This secular event is celebrated worldwide as a day of affection and romance, yet humans have so much more to improve upon.

Here at MoM: We push back on war. We push back on aggression and lies. We push back on book banning, oppression, and hate speech. We acknowledge the lives lost to violence, the misguided ‘othering’ of individuals, and the patriarchal constructs that continue to dominate our world culture. This year on the 14th, we celebrate the V-Day Movement, One Billion Rising, an activist organization that emerged out of the Vagina Monologues by Even Ensler on Feb. 14, 1998 to stop violence of all kinds around the planet.

Then, rising up on February 15th is Susan B. Anthony‘s birthday. We honor her on this remembrance day for her commitment to suffrage during the first wave feminist movement in the United States. Her work with Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass and others, as both an abolitionist and then working on behalf of women for the right to vote, are seminal. Though these partnerships were complicated, Anthony a ‘woman’ and Douglas a ‘Black man’ are both significant figures in the early emancipation movements. Remarkably, Anthony’s birthday is a state holiday in Florida. I am proud to say that I still hold the Susan B. Anthony award by NOW-NYC, which proudly hangs in my office at the Annex. See more about the feminist waves below in our Flash Feminism slide show!

  • Flash Feminism One
  • Flash Feminism Two
  • Flash Feminism Three
  • Flash Feminism Four
  • Flash Feminism Five

What’s next? A lot, it turns out. This Friday, we will be hosting a dinner with YesChefVillage onsite here at MoM. Sunday, February 5th is a sold-out Feminist Pizza Party in our garden to benefit the public arts initiative in Kenwood. I look forward to continuing my work with the St. Pete High School Feminist Club with several projects including this simple booklet introducing the four waves of feminism to students of all ages (See slide show above). I also have the privilege of overseeing detailed projects with interns conducting advanced scholarship in the area of mother studies from around the world! Finally, MoM will be participating in Localtopia 2023 with our own table and information about launching our capital building campaign, while hopefully finalizing the acquisition of the Mother Tree statue. These are just a few of our offerings this month at MoM. Looking forward to the intersections that connect us. See some of our recent tour participants here 🙂 Please donate to our success if you can!

With Love Always, All the Time; Martha JOY Rose, Founder/Director MoM

Download Flash Feminism PDF
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Final PUSH to 2022 Fundraising Goals and A Big Move!

Donate To MoM

This is our final countdown to the Mother Tree Fundraiser in 2022. As of now, we are over halfway to our goal of purchasing this one-of-a-kind artwork from world-renowned paper-maker Helen Hiebert, on loan to MoM until June 2023. We have raised $13,300 towards the purchase price of $25,000. That means only $11,700 left to go! Won’t you help us clinch the deal? The Mother Tree is a seven-foot high handmade sculpture installation featuring single strands of thread which have been crocheted by over 400 participants around the world. Helen is an internationally acclaimed artist, author and educator. The Mother Tree is currently onsite at the MOM Art Annex. She is impactful, lovely, and represents the connection we have to the earth, our families, and our community. Any amount, no matter how small, helps us to secure her for our permanent collection. Your name will be added to the webpage and also onsite at MoM. You can write a check, donate through Paypal or go through our GoFundMe. We thank YOU!

Read on to see all our successes in 2022 and see what we hope to achieve in 2023.

This year we commenced with BIG goals at MoM. In addition to branded content, thanks to our summer interns, we revamped our mission statement to maximize inclusivity while staying true to our goals of elaborating on the art, science, and herstory of m/others.

We recommitted to serving up visible, educational, and inspiring offerings by conducting onsite tours on a regular basis. These tours oftentimes included children. We added to our collections and exhibits, built a vestibule to better enable visitors to view our interior space regardless of pandemics, and held postpartum groups and mothers’ playdates in our garden.

Easy QR MoM Donation with Stripe (Secure Payments)

New team members came on board. Specifically, we welcomed legal advice from local lawyer Larry Dillahunty, and are most pleased to be working with Deborah Gelch in the position of Strategic Advisor, Elena Rodz in website development, Marcile Powers as Arts Facilitator, and Connie Burgess as our new Membership Director and Community Laison.

We continued with our Residencies both remote and onsite, as well as our internship program, adding four new interns poised to start work in the new year. Our international relationship with MAMA collaborators continued, bringing online art exhibits from around the world.

We heartily thank the neighborhood of Historic Kenwood and the Artist Enclave for their great work on the Studio Tour as well as Winter in the Woods, and Bohemia Night at (Kenwood Gables) which MoM participated in, and also want to shout out to SPACEcraft for including us in their latest round of installations in St. Pete, and St. Pete High School for inviting MoM to present at the Art & Feminist Club.

One piece of big news is that our director, Martha Joy Rose took up permanent residence in Florida this year, relinquishing her NY-based teaching job at Manhattan College and further cementing her commitment to MoM locally in St. Petersburg.

We thank you Living Board 2022, Zabrina Shkurti, Nicole Musselman, and two-term Residency Coordinator Tracy Sidesinger. The Annual MoM Conference and the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS) are ongoing with this year’s hybrid conference scheduled for March 24-26. (Join us online or in person).

This year, we wrote two grants: one was denied and we are waiting to hear on the second one. We received one anonymous foundation award in the amount of $1,000, and we thank all our new members and donors! While our needs are great, as is the case with many non-profits, we have persevered through geographic moves, personnel changes, pandemics, and great and we have SURVIVED and THRIVED!

MoM belongs to you – the public, our members, and our community. Please consider getting involved or making a donation today. Use our donation link or checks can be sent to 538 28th St. N St Petersburg, Florida 33713. Help us GROW!

Donate To MoM
  • SPACEcraft, Photo by Sandra Sonik
  • Marcile Powers, Photo by Sandra Sonic
  • SPACEcraft, Photo by Sandra Sonic
  • SPACEcraft Mama!
  • SPACEcraft, Joy and Connie
  • SPACEcraft founders Mitzi Gordon & Carrie Boucher
  • Journal of Mother Studies
  • Martha Joy Rose, St. Pete High School
  • Bohemia Night, Kenwood Gables
  • Bohemia Night Kenwood Gables
  • Tour MoM Alexis Baum
  • New Art
  • MoM Postpartum Group
  • Deborah Gelch and Connie Burgess
  • Feminist Club
  • MoM’s Playdate
  • MoM Playdate
  • Playdate at MoM
  • MoM Merch
  • Winter in the Wood
  • Winter in the Wood
  • Gloria Munoz- St Pete Poet Laureate and former MoM Resident
  • MoM Tour w/Family
  • Babies are the Future!
  • Summer visits/ Birth Chair
  • Friends from NY Visit MoM
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Art Education Featured Featured Artists Fl MAMA MOM Art Annex motherhood Residency

M.A.M.A. Issue 53 – Jessica Caldas

The Museum of Motherhood, ProCrete Project, the Mom Egg Review present M.A.M.A. Our collaboration celebrates the intersection of art and words. Wherever we live, work, and play, the art of motherhood is made manifest. #JoinMAMA  @ProcreateProj  @MuseumOfMotherhood @MERliterary

ART

BIO: Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida and Georgia based, artist, advocate, and activist. She completed a residency at MoM onsite in 2022. Her work connects personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. Caldas has participated in numerous emerging artist residencies, including the Atlanta Printmakers Studio in 2011, MINT Gallery’s Leap Year Program from 2012-2013, The Creatives Project form 2018-2019, Vermont Studio Center in 2020, and was the Art on the Atlanta Beltline AIR in 2020-2021. Caldas was awarded The Center for Civic Innovations 2016 Creative Impact award, named Creative Loafing’s Best of ATL Artist for 2016 and 2015, received the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in Visual Arts for 2014, and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award in 2014. Her work has been featured at Burnaway, ArtsAtl, Creative Loafing Atlanta, Atlanta Magazine, Simply Buckhead, and more. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend, The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Kyoto International Community House.

In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women’s Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses.

Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She currently runs Good News Arts, a small community arts space and gallery in rural North Central Florida.

Jessica Caldas

Statement

My work is driven by personal experience and its connection to contemporary and historical issues. Overall, my work addresses the complexities and intricacies of care and identity in our current culture. I seek to make challenging experiences accessible to those without the same somatic knowledge while still engaging in conversation and confrontation. In my practice, I incorporate layered, labor intensive drawings, collage, sculpture, performance, et al, into fully realized mixed media works and immersive installations. Within my work, the viewer is met with bodily experiences that mirror the complexities of the stories I share, with a focus on shared knowledge, awareness, empathy, and change.

My recent work is mostly divided in two ways:
1. Focus on the daily lived experiences of women; their triumphs, their struggles, and everything in between in several bodies of work which reflects on the complicated spaces, both personal and public, that women inhabit and move through.
2. Exploration of the complexities of identity where family history, cultural and social influence, politicization, and personal desire are both at odds and overlapping. In this exploration identity becomes a fact-based excavation of personal history alongside a kind of fictional mythological world building.

My artistic process has become a slow one. Where once I worked quickly, and almost frantically, I have learned in the years since completing my graduate work  that a slower, more methodical approach serves me and my work much more completely than the ways I used to create. I spend an inordinate amount of time, months and sometimes longer, reading, writing, and researching ideas, stories, and concepts that inform the work I am creating. I probably spend more time thinking about the work I will make than actually producing it, because by the time I have gotten to the point of making, I have a lot of knowledge about where I am going and what I want from the work. This is not to say that I create without reacting to what is happening, because that is another important part of my practice. Much of my production is also organic and reactionary as well. I like the ability to respond to change, materials, problems, and other things that happen in the studio as they happen, rather than strictly adhering to a plan. I find that flexibility has produced far better work than rigidity ever does. It is more real and more realistic.

As for my journey, I am one of those fortunate people who have been creating my whole life. I was privileged enough to be surrounded by art from a young age, and to be surrounded by people who took art seriously and supported my desire to practice art professionally. So going to school for art was never an issue.

(Quote from the art journal: an online journal of art and cultural commentary. Link: https://www.theartsection.com/caldas)

WORDS

Dayna Patterson is the author of Titania in Yellow (Porkbelly Press, 2019) and If
Mother Braids a Waterfall (Signature Books, 2020). Her creative work has
appeared recently in Duende, EcoTheo, and Gulf Coast. She is the founding
editor-in-chief of Psaltery & Lyre and a co-editor of Dove Song: Heavenly Mother
in Mormon Poetry. She was a co-winner of the 2019 #DignityNotDetention Poetry
Prize judged by Ilya Kaminsky. daynapatterson.com

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Joy Report: Team Art Shows, MoM Conference, and #Giving Tuesday

Hello Friends,

It’s sunny in Florida and a balmy 76 degrees and many of us are celebrating together in traditional ways. The Christmas tree is ready to be illuminated downtown, fake snow is in the air, and lights abound. Whether you are prepping the family menorah, or simply looking towards Festivus, may we be glad and of good will. May we lift up those suffering through hunger and war and let us show kindness to our neighbor and gentleness in our homes.

Let us create! Let us show our souls! Let us paint our dreams and mold images out of clay. Let us stitch together a herstory that weaves its way from the city of the arts, in the neighborhood of Kenwood, ‘where art lives’, all the way to you, wherever you may be.

This weekend, MoM team member Elena Rodz has a solo art show at Redbud Gallery 303 E. 11th St. Houston, TX 77008, Texas. The title of her show is, Dilly Dally. Dates: Dec 3 – Jan 1/ Reception: Dec 3, 6-9PM

Artist Statement: The show’s title “Dilly Dally” refers to the practice of enjoying life at a walking pace. Like many of my generation, I’m overwhelmed by the enormity of the Now — the biannual once-in-a-millennia events, the metropolitan cultural hubs we all rushed to after undergrad, the gauntlet from grade school to (maybe) retirement. A move to a small city in Texas in 2013 prompted a reconsideration at the pace I experienced life. I learned to look each moment in the face rather than over its shoulder.

This series of paintings challenges the viewer to suspend thought. The imagery and composition are superficial, and the response should be primal. I want the viewer to feel instinctually rather than put thought into deciphering the hidden meaning of the artwork. The purpose of the artwork is to pause and appreciate the slow moments and the overlooked beauty of the average. Although the scenes are all real places in Corpus Christi, TX, they recall anywhere once called home.

We applaud Elena and love her dearly for her creativity, spunk, and expertise. She greatly contributes to the MoM team and we are all better for knowing her. See more of Elena’s art which is available for purchase here.

We are excited for our Annual Conference this March 23-24 in St. Pete and on Zoom. THE DEADLINE to SUBMIT IS EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 10th. You only need to submit a 250 word abstract about an academic paper, art project, or other medium on the topic of Reproductive Landscapes: This conference call is for papers, performances, conversations, and art, focused on new gender identities and discourse. Here is the full CFP and submit via the JourMS website. Won’t you please join the conversation about this very important topic!

It’s #GivingTuesday! This year MAKE IT MoM and help us GROW!

We have DREAMS of a PLACE to call OUR own. A museum that ELEVATES, illuminates, DISSEMINATES, and complicates this wildly IMPORTANT identity, JOB, journey, and POSITION of care, CONCERN, birth, and LIFE- the WOMYN at the CENTER of creativity, PROCREATION, productivity, SORROW, hope, HELP, and JOY 💓– any DONATION amount MAKES a difference. We ARE the ART, science, and HERstory of M/others.

Any amount benefits our forward movement; $5, $10, $15, $25, $50, $100, $1,000. We have so much we are $5, $15, $10, $25, $100, $1,000 towards MEMBERSHIP, acquisitions, BUILDING CAMPAIGN.

We look forward to your energy, your care, your good vibes, and your financial support. THANK YOU!

DONATE

As November winds to a close and December rushes in, let us take time to reflect not only on the things we are grateful for, but the ways in which we can all heed the call to ‘do better’ in our lives, our relationships, and in the ways we work and move in the world.

Love, Love, Love,

Joy Rose, Director and Founder (Link to our December Newsletter)

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Welcome Autumn Interns: Back to School

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.