Grants – MoM

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 Media Campaign 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.

More to come.

Keep Swimming,

Martha JOY Rose

Hello MOM Family! We are thrilled to announce our two most recent additions to our amazing team, Teddy Friedline and Sarah Akomoh. Teddy will work closely with our JourMS editor to ensure a high-quality publication representing all the latest in motherhood studies. Sarah will work towards securing grants for our organization to continue our march into the future, securing our place for years to come.

New to MOM this Summer

Teddy L. Friedline (they/them) is a recent graduate of Washington College, where they won the 2022 Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate writing prize in the nation. Their creative work, which often focuses on motherhood, can be found in Yes Poetry, streetcake, Burning Jade Magazine, and elsewhere. They are co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of FAIRY PIECE MAG, a literary magazine focused on breaking old rules and creating new ones.

They are especially excited to be working on MOM’s Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS), reviewing both creative and academic work. Teddy also looks forward to promoting JourMS widely through social media and exploring how to better disseminate the incredible contributions of our amazing authors and artists through the digital humanities.

Also Please Welcome

Sarah Akomoh is currently a first year MA student with a concentration in literature at USF. Her research interests are primarily connected to Black feminism and the dynamics of womanhood for both African and African American women. She is excited to intern at The Museum of Motherhood this summer and can’t wait to learn and give her research skills to the grant writing process.

Through the course of her internship, she commits to using her research skills to learn and then secure general operating support for the Museum of Motherhood through various grant writing initiatives. As part of moving the Museum forward, she will also research local and national grants and come up with a plan to support the finances of the MOM Museum. Membership and loyalty is a key dynamic feature of the MOM Museum. Therefore, Sarah aims to collate past contributors and reach out to our members to appreciate and initiate potential future patronage and sponsorship.

Passionate about topics related to m/otherhood? Reproductive identities? Art? HERstory? Mothers Making Art? Mothers in Academia? Women and Gender Studies? Lifelong students can follow the Museum of Motherhood here, join our new ONLINE COMMUNITY, and we appreciate any and all support? Be sure to follow us on social media and check out our virtual storefront for merchandise!

If you have any inquiries regarding getting involved with MOM or are interested in being part of our Living Board, you can find out information about what being a board member entails under our About tab or clicking the link HERE: Living Museum Annual Volunteers – Join Us! – MUSEUM OF MOTHERHOOD (mommuseum.org)