Last year we saw so many changes. Some easy and some challenging. At the end of the year, like so many, we honor the year behind us and look forward to the year ahead!
In 2023, MoM hosted the Annual Academic Conference on Maternal Landscapes and welcomed travelers from around the world, finalizing production on the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS) for online publication post-conference. We worked with artists in residence including and extended residency with Batya Weinbaum who created an onsite goddess mural at the MOM Art Annex. We purchased the Mother Tree by Helen Hiebert for our permanent collection with the support of you- the friends of MoM. As we made new friends in the community we worked with YesChefVillage hosting community dinners onsite, joined Localtopia for its huge local festival gathering, and conducted 178 MoM tours. Our internships were active with local Feminist Club high school students and another university graduate students completing final projects with MoM from different countries including Russia, Canada, England, and France. Finally, we enjoyed media attention from SpectrumBayNews9, the Tampa Bay Times (twice), and Authentic Florida. Finally, in September, we moved from our offices at the MOM Art Annex to The Factory in the arts district of St. Pete and opened our doors to the public. Our lease runs through July 2024. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Our New Year 2024
January2024 last call to view Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job exhibit through January 15th onsite at The Factory. Then, MoM welcomes the Womb Project ‘Time-based Sculpture and Documentation’ with yarn by Madison Hendry.
January 15th New Board Members announced.
February 18th Feminist Pizza Party: as part of Dining for the Arts with Historic Kenwood.
March is Women’s History Month!
March 16 & 17 – MOM Art Annex Studio Tour as part of the AEHK.
March 22-24 – Annual MoM Conference: Threads of Connection – Sorry/Not Sorry featuring keynote speaker Courtney Kessel with an interactive site-responsive installation of “Fabric of Life” and the art of the doula and Madison Hendry with group-led conversations circles at the Mother Tree with community crochet, panel discussions, conference presentations, and local health & wellness exhibitions.
May is Mothers Month! Saint Petersburg Month of Photography – SPMOP (Local Photography Exhibit) in partnership with local artists.
June- JulyGeography of a Woman featuring Interiors “we are all pink inside” by Christen Clifford and the Goddesses of Malta.
This schedule is sure to blossom. If you are interested in getting involved with MoM as a volunteer, partner, collaborator, local sponsor, or through workshop or other participation, or if you’d like to share your time or expertise, please contact us! To make a donation to MoM go to ourdonation page please.
MoM has acquired the Mother Tree for our permanent collection! Thanks to each of you who donated through our GoFundMe, our website, or by private contribution. Thanks too, artist Helen Hiebert, artist and creator for trusting us and for additional support. Thanks to all of you we have succeeded in achieving this wonderful milestone.
This purchase represents the culmination of two years of fundraising for our permanent collection and we couldn’t be more pleased to share this success with each of you. If you have been fortunate to have seen the Mother Tree at the MoM Art Annex or one of her other previous exhibitions spaces, lit up and beaming, then you join an exclusive group who have indeed been fortunate. Moving forward we look forward to future large scale exhibition spaces where we can share her for public display.
May has been an incredible month for forging new connections, completing projects, and travel. For those of you who have been keeping up with travel blog reports from founding director, Martha Joy Rose, travels to the Goddess temples of Malta have been transformational indeed. You can read more about the Goddess’s of Malta at our founder’s blog.
Throughout June, July, and August, operations will continue at the MoM Art Annex though outreach activities are paused. Our team will be busy strategizing a year’s worth of exhibits for our 2023-24 season which commences in September. During the summer, internships, grant writing, renovations, and curatorial activities will be in full swing.
Finally, we want to share news from our recent experience at the Modern Herbal Apothecary in Tampa for a ‘Closing the Bones Ceremony’. Lyani Powers, doula and owner of MHA presented at this year’s annual academic MoM Conference on ‘Maternal Landscapes’. This ritualistic ceremony can be traced to South America, Africa, and Asia, yet here in American this ritual is not common. Founder Joy Rose was graciously invited to Lyani’s studio post-conference.
During the conference,Lyani shared that she performed ‘Closing the Bones’ on her mother-in-law so it seemed the ceremony could work on new mothers as well as older mothers. Here at MoM we recognize the ways in which many women continue symbolically, and in real life, remain attached to grief, trauma, and even may stay stuck emotionally or become over-involved in their adult children’s lives. Could this be a way to honor those sacred bonds while allowing space for closure and release? We were hoping so.
Nestled into a residential neighborhood Lyani’s gorgeous space is stocked with teas, herbs, and scents that are both delicious and healing. The ceremony itself involved sage, touch, a holding of the body and swaying gently while being gently cradled. This was followed by a tight body- wrapping, a rest, and it concluded with a ceremonial tea and washing of the feet. There were low mutterings, incantations, and prayers for releasing old patterns and welcoming new energy and new ways of being.
This was all a marvelous closure to our founder’s extended trip to visit the Goddess Temples of Malta. The divine feminine has been with us and the world for at least five-thousand years BC. How do those threads get lost? How do the rituals that sustain us disappear? We must weave our way back in time together to activate the symbolic strength of women as respected and glorious members of society.
The Museum of Motherhood’s first online exhibition was in 2010. The launch featured a Sacred Feminine exhibit created Polly Wood online. Now, thirteen years later in 2023, Batya Weinbaum began work on the Goddess mural at the MOM Art Annex for her ‘Artist in Residency’ project. There is a lot of herstory in this world to be mapped – indeed, there is a link to all our shared legacies and experiences. We encourage you to do some research on ‘Closing of the Bones’ rituals. There is much to learn and much to celebrate if we can stay strong in our bonds to each other and continue to find ways to collaborate. Find our more at ModernHerbalApothocary.com or search ceremonies online. And, please, whatever you do, make sure to stay strong. You are beautiful!
Modern Herbal Apothecary
Herbal Tea Time
Delicious
The wrapping prep
Sage and Conversation
Lyani Leads
The Bone Closing Ceremony
Lyani Powers, Doula and Owner MHA
Flower Foot Bath
Mushroom Walls
The Closing of the Bones Ceremony brought a SONG to mind and is summed up well here:
I can’t really explain it I haven’t got the words It’s a feeling that you can’t control I suppose its like forgetting Losing who you are And at the same time Something makes you whole Its like that there’s a music Playing in your ear And I’m listening, and I’m listening And then I disappear (Lyrics from the song Electric- Billy Elliot, the musical )
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!
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
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!
As April comes to a close and May begins in earnest, many of us are wondering what’s next? What’s next in our world, our lives, our finances, and our families. Spring has sprung but so have droughts, war, recession worries, and post-pandemic (or mid-pandemic) realities. One thing is for sure, we can only focus on the things within our control. That means looking around at your family, your friends, and your neighborhood and leading the way, the best way you can.
For teachers, this may mean balancing changing protocols in classrooms. For some mothers, this has meant spending time with strangers screaming in parking lots. For many, survival is just a day away.
In my experience, lurching forward with faltering footwork, leaves me staggering towards an unknown destination. When I feel like quitting, that often means some kind of relief is in sight. After months of lockdown, the personal management of grief, frustration, and fear, this new turn of the season brings hopeful possibilities.
The MOM Art Annex in Florida has seen signs of unprecedented growth. Perhaps this is because of a growing collective concern by some that basic liberties are under siege: book banning, women’s reproductive health access, and the rights of LGBTQ+, have sent some spinning in the direction of social changes spaces like ours. Or, perhaps it’s the years of hard work by so many that are finally coalescing in real MOMentum?
We presented our proposal to the local Historic Kenwood Association a few weeks ago and followed up with meetings with our councilman Richie Floyd. To that end, his solid advice was “advocacy” is all. So we created an ally document for interested friends to sign. Then, we created a petition[Link] that states MOM deserves her own space in the sun. We have spent months reworking some of our original internal document language to make sure inclusivity is front and center. Several new volunteers have joined us as well as a few part time staff persons. The Journal of Mother Studies will accept submissions through May 2022 and then go into the editorial process. We gratefully welcome Nicole Musselman (USF) as lead editor and are excited to welcome a new intern as an editorial assistant beginning June. This is all awesome stuff.
Oh, and yeah – HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY ! (Everyday is M/other’s Day). We L<3VE YOU, we love peace, we love our planet, and we’d like to see every human being valued in an equitable and sustainable world. Hang in there. Because we are all connected, because m/otherhood is otherhood, and because if there are more of us spreading light, rather than hate, more of us creating access than obstacles, and more people acting out of respect than entitled aggression – towards each other and our planet- then we just might make it! Let kindness be the currency of our lives.
Martha Joy Rose
Museum Director Martha Joy Rose presenting to the Historic Kenwood Association March 2022
I want to write about mothers and trees. Roots and families. Art and love.
Last year our world appeared to be on fire. Headlines captured devastating events around the globe. From politics to pandemics, the news cycle, as well as our personal lives, were upended in so many ways. In the midst of one of many California blazes, a story about a redwood matriarch dubbed the Mother of the Forest in Santa Cruz, California caught my attention.
Mother of the Forest is one of the tallest trees in Santa Cruz Park. A symbolic womb at her core forms an 8 x 13 foot room, or a hobbit hole, or a sacred space — depending on your perspective.
I have become obsessed with trees.
Trees are a testimony to patience and resilience. They offer shelter, contribute to healthy ecosystems, and fight climate change. Redwoods protect and support each other as well as other sapling growth by creating family circles sprouted from the roots of a parent tree. These families may or may not be genetically related. These lessons in cooperation can be a metaphor for humanity in its current fragmented state.
One month ago, I headed back to the MOM Art Annex in Florida after a prolonged absence. Ready to explore the next steps with our community and see to the ongoing growth of the Museum project, I arrived energized. Rising in the midst of display artifacts, art, and birthing objects, a new exhibit towers in the heart of the Annex. Artist Helen Hiebert’s Mother Tree is a brilliant illuminated sculpture made of paper and thread on loan to us for the year.
In preparation for the Mother Tree’s arrival, I pursued the book Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, a deeply inspiring tale of scientific discovery and maternal care. I pondered our new directions with the Museum of Motherhood and gladly welcomed a guest artist residency proposal by Polly Wood, which included constructing an empty nest as a ceremonial acknowledgement of her daughter going off to college.
“A nest,” I exclaimed. “How timely for the Mother Tree’s arrival.”
Polly and I spent a glorious two weeks spinning magic. A blog about her residency is online at MOM. The next guest artist arrives in mid-December with work featuring among other things, landscapes and trees in gorgeous muted watercolors.
Polly Wood working on her “Empty Nest” at MOM
As the year winds down, I gratefully acknowledge the manner in which I’ve been able to spend time with emerging mother artists here in St. Petersburg, and also family as well. My son, his wife, and their baby have been on-site for the last six weeks, crowded into the MOM Art Annex’s tiny space– along with the exhibits, myself, and visiting guests. My one-year old granddaughter crawls around the carefully childproofed perimeter while I proudly chase after her.
In these accompanying photos, I introduce my granddaughter to a world of female sheroes, the art of motherhood, and a variety of messages aimed at empowering women and girls. The images for this MAMA exhibit also include my own self-portrait surrounded by the Mother Tree’s yarn roots in a symbolic gesture of rebirth, renewal, and generational connection.
Martha Joy Rose ; rebirth with Helen Hiebert’s “Mother Tree” sculpture and Polly Wood’s “Nest”
Every major tree metaphor reminds me to trust in the slow, yet, steady growth of the museum project. Good things take time. Like a redwood, we want the museum to stand as a testament to the ages. We want to collaborate with our community and our surroundings. These things develop and deepen slowly. We are the connection. We are the women. We are the love. We are the trees.
If you would like to donate to our Mother Tree acquisitions campaign, please consider helping us purchase the Mother Tree in perpetuity by making a tax-deductible donation here.
In gratitude and perseverance, Martha Joy Rose
Frank and Sojourner Truth at MOM 2021
Raising the next generation of empowered humans means teaching them about our past: our struggles, problems, issues, and herstory. At the MOM Art Annex we do exactly that, while building towards our future by developing the footprint for the Museum of Motherhood project as an international education and exhibition destination.
I look forward hopefully, understanding deeply the importance of engaging with people of all ages in an inclusive, supportive, and smart environment. Together we can elevate the voices and artistic endeavors of all humans, and in our case, especially m/others, procreators, dreamers, childless by choice, women in history and present day sheroes– as well as those who have suffered loss and infertility.
My granddaughter and I have started this conversation early and often – even though she is still pre-verbal. A picture is worth a thousand words in this case!
Martha Joy Rose: Martha Joy Rose is a community organizer and Museum of Motherhood founder. Her work has been published across blogs and academic journals and she has performed with her band Housewives On Prozac around the world. She is the NOW-NYC recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award, her Mamapalooza Festival Series has been recognized as “Best in Girl-Power Events”, and her music has appeared on the Billboard Top 100 Dance Charts. She founded the Museum of Motherhood in 2003, created the Motherhood Foundation 501c3 non-profit in 2005, saw it flourish in NYC from 2011-2014, and then pop up at several academic institutions. After teaching Mother Studies at the college level, she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. Her current live/work space is devoted to the exploration of mother-labor & performance art while she oversees the continued growth of the Museum of Motherhood project.
Helen Hiebert: Helen Hiebert constructs installations, films, artists’ books and works in paper using handmade paper as her primary medium. Her sculpture Mother Tree serves as a symbol of the vulnerability, strength and sense of community she feels as a mother. The seven-foot tall handmade paper dress/tree features single strands of thread which extend from the bodice of the dress, representing mother’s milk, and cascade to the floor, transforming via crochet into roots which pile up, filling the surrounding space as a tree’s roots would fill the ground beneath it. The transformation from dress to tree and root to soil symbolizes the mother as a provider and nurturer throughout human development. Since her inception, hundreds of people have contributed to crocheting roots with messages of family, friendship, and affirmation.
Procreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and the Mom Egg Review are pleased to announce the 50th edition of this scholarly discourse. Literature intersects with art to 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: wherever you live, work and play, the Art of Motherhood is made manifest. #JoinMAMA #artandmotherhood
This #GivingTuesday we chose to share our mission and ask that you consider making a donation to show your support of these ideals. As we grow our collections, we further establish our presence in the world:
We are the first and only facility of its kind serving as a unique resource elucidating the art, science, and history of women, mothers, and the culture of family. The Museum’s purpose is to provide a place and platform for education, illumination, and inspiration. We believe a more comprehensive understanding of pregnancy, birth, and the value of care-work, will lead to healthier and happier homes, more productive workplaces, and better social policies. MOM Art Annex, 501c3 Florida Non-Profit I Motherhood Foundation 501c3 NY
MUSEUM OF MOTHERHOOD TODAY
Engage with people of all ages in an inclusive, supportive, and smart environment.
Elevate the artistic endeavors of m/others, procreators, dreamers, childless by choice, those experiencing fertility issues, and those who have suffered loss
Educate the public about women’s evolving histories, identities, and roles in the home and in society
Explore the science of menses, conception, gestation, birth, and matresence.
Examine policy and advocacy around parenting
Elaborate on pregnancy and birth as a sacred and creative act
Understand the concept and value of carework
Nurture those who nurture
Be an international destination for those hoping to learn about American motherhood
Celebrate our shared human heritage: We are all born of a womb as of 2021. What does that mean to you?
Museum founder, Martha Joy Rose with Mother Tree and Nest in the MOM Art Annex, St. Petersburg, FL
We are currently fundraising for the Mother Tree acquisitions campaign. Please #JoinMama:
During the month of October, Polly Wood came to St. Petersburg, Florida to reflect, make art, and build a nest. More specifically, after ushering her daughter off to college, she realized there was an opportunity to commemorate this significant rite of passage. She came to MOM to build an empty nest.
On top of Polly’s many accomplishments, she is in the process of expanding her career as a musician and artist. She is also in the midst of searching for the threads of the next part of her journey. I didn’t realize the relevancy of the timing of her visit until she arrived on site. We were both engaged in creating big life changes. While I anticipated that I was doing her a kindness by offering her a residency, the opposite was actually true. Polly came with gifts.
The first time I met Polly she performed original music on drums and vocals at the academic ARM Conference in Canada in the early two thousands. I bonded with her instantly. Then, she participated in more performances at the MOM Conference in Manhattan, and I subsequently visited her at her childhood home in Ithaca, New York.
Polly’s first exhibition at MOM, over a dozen years ago, was an online presentation about the Sacred Feminine which launched our first Museum website. In it, she wrote about maternal labor, Goddesses, reproductive rights, and trees. Our relationship roots run deep.
In this online exhibit with the museum, Polly articulated the significance of trees within her own vision of the sacred feminine. She wrote: “Trees are symbolic, metaphoric and metaformic 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 elaborated on 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 in a human that 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,” were included in these early presentations.
When she made the commitment to visit recently, the synchronicity of her willingness to devote time and attention at the MOM Art Annex brought a beautiful focus to our own growing momentum, which includes a search for a new Executive Fundraising Board, as well as an ongoing fundraiser for purchasing Helen Hiebert’s Mother Tree for our permanent collection.
Over the course of the two weeks, we shared conversations, sourced materials, and made art. The affiliation I felt over what we have shared through the years, as well as the ways in which both of us have continued to grow, does indeed remind me of the unfolding branches of the intertwined sacred feminine, which I am fortuitous to witness within the walls of the museum, now flanked by one magical empty nest, crafted by this soul sister, Polly Wood (Pictured above and below this text).
There are stretches where time appears to inch forward incrementally. Movement can be difficult to perceive. This can be true for people, landscapes, and even plants. Tree and forest seedlings take anywhere between twenty and one hundred and fifty years to fully develop. Growth appears almost imperceptible. In the case of Polly and myself, so much has happened since our last encounter, but the last two weeks felt comfortably familiar. We picked up right where we left off.
The photos shared here, of the nest she built, the Mother Tree, and our own entwinement represent a personal celebration of life unfolding, our individual development, and maturation, as well as the manner in which we are inextricably linked through our art, womanhood, and our m/otherness. In each of these experiences, we are born anew. First in conception, then inception, then again and again in the counterpoint of connection. EnJOY! And, please consider joining MOM in some capacity or other, either by donating to the Mother Tree (Link below) or joining us in our ongoing efforts to expand.
Together we are strong. Together we are marvelous. Life is a circle. We are the trees. ~ Martha Joy Rose
Singer, Songwriter, Drummer, Artist & In, Actor & Independent Scholar Polly Wood
The most recent addition to our residency program has been Polly Wood, MFA, MA an accomplished singer, songwriter, drummer, artist, actor and independent scholar. In her various areas of expertise and representative media, Polly strives to focus on the “preservation of the sacred feminine.” Through her residency, you will come to see her passion for her art, her community, her love for family and her vivacious spirit.
Polly began her artistic journey through fifteen years of dance training and performance in the styles of tap, jazz, ballet, acrobatics. Dance and youth theatre led her to study performing and visual arts in college, where her focus shifted towards Acting. Prior to graduating, she took a hiatus to grow as a musician and artist, gaining performance experience and inspiration from creative collaboration within her community. It was also during this time she explored her passion for the female experience of pregnancy and birth. Building up a career as a doula– a non-medical professional child-birth assistant- she provided support to women and families throughout their pregnancy, and the process of labor, delivery, and early post-childbirth experiences. She also led mother-baby movement classes, birth-art-workshops, artfully created plaster belly casts for over 50 beautiful pregnant bellies, and produced and choreographed A Birth Dance–a modern dance performance and community birth celebration.
Almost a decade after dropping out of performing arts school, Polly returned to college with a toddler in tow to complete her Bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies. From there she earned a Master’s degree in Women’s Spirituality, and an M.F.A. in Creative Inquiry, both from New College of California. She focused on global economics & the sacred feminine; cross-cultural rites-of-passage; ritual performance and art as a sacred practice. Her master’s thesis The Menstrual Origins of Money was published in 2006. As a singer-songwriter-drummer Polly has performed her original music across the United States and bit in Canada. Much of her visual art over the years followed the themes of pregnancy, birth and the divine feminine in the embodiment of whom she calls Radwoman.
Above are samples of Polly’s visual artistic works. From left to right: Radwoman Placenta Power (1), Radwoman Fire Songs (2), Radwoman Earth Mother (3), Miss River’s Moon (4), Birds of Change 2 (5), Into the Nest (6), Birds of Change (7), Tree of Life of Instillation (8 & 9).
As a multi-disciplinary artist, Polly’s creative work goes where she feels most lit up. Most recently her passions have come full circle to a creative pursuit of her youth: Acting. This past year offered her baby steps into entering the film & television industry. She is represented by the talent agency Phirgun Mair Worldwide. Feeling grateful for her agent and loving the auditions that come her way, she looks forward to booking future gigs.
This is Polly’s third engagement with the Museum of Motherhood. In early 2010 she curated a 12-week Sacred Feminine exhibit online and later that year was a guest artist for the Mamapalooza/M.O.M. Conference in New York City.
After nearly two decades of birth & postpartum work; visual/performing arts and scholarship focused on themes of mothering, the sacred feminine and rites-of-passage, Polly comes to the M.O.M residency to create What Is Left in an Empty Nest?
Inspired by a recent phone conversation wherein she offered (both ‘good’ and embarrassingly, ‘bad’) advice to her daughter regarding one of her college assignments, Polly envisioned what would happen if she were able to take and apply her own advice as easily as it was for her to dish it out. The next step became evident, and applying for the M.O.M residency was a part of that.
Polly is looking forward to being Artist-in-Residence at the M.O.M Art Annex, as well as experiencing what unfolds as she engages both her personal community and the Museum of Motherhood community in offering their ‘advice’ towards her creation. In addition to using this collective advice the help stitch and weave the nest together, Polly will be working with themes of grief, emptiness and expansion that can arise when children leave home -whether to spread their wings on their own, or to spend time with another parent- as well as the theme of invisibility that can accompany the gift of being in a step-parent role. Polly will be building an ‘empty nest’ for the Museum of Motherhood, both highlighting a common experience and as a personal rite-of-passage.
We can’t wait to have Polly back as a returning resident artist and are so grateful to have her fantastic contribution to M.O.M.’s archives.
To learn more about Polly, her amazing works, and any additional publications, please check out these links to her personal website, additional Resume, and projects:
Also be sure to follow her on Insta and FB for updates as well as more of her thoughts on our residency!
Instagram: @ms._polly_wood
Facebook: Polly Wood
If you are interested in applying for a 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.”
