We are thrilled to announce multiple exciting events at the Museum of Motherhood.
This weekend, Saturday January 13, 2024 in collaboration with Drew Marc Gallery, MoM celebrates a show of contemporary women artists, titled ‘The Modern Woman‘. As part of our Women in the Arts series interview (excerpts can be found on our instagram @MuseumOfMotherhood) see the video below. The Drew Marc opening this Saturday features the art of Andrea Dasha Reich, Blair Vaughn-Gruler, Maggie Kruger and Michelle Gordon. The show starts at 6PM- 9 with a food truck on site. Make sure to visit the Museum of Motherhood when you visit. We will be open to the public as well. Drew Marc Gallery is located in Building 8. MoM is located in Building 5 (across from the Fairground and DaddyKool Records).
This Friday, January 12th, please be our guest onsite as WEDU wraps up filming on the Museum of Motherhood, covering our move to The Factory in St. Pete and our quest to be a women’s museum in Florida with a focus on m/others. Please join us at 1PM (or a little earlier). All new and old friends are welcome! Linger for an hour, be part of a tour, speak on camera and share your thoughts! Or, just join us for some lite fair. It would be GREAT if you could let us know you’re coming either through DM on social media, INFO@MOMmuseum.org or call 877-711-MOMS (6667). We’re gonna rock it (with YOU).
More Upcoming Events
January2024 last call to view Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job exhibit through January 15th onsite at The Factory.
January 17th MoM welcomes the Womb Project ‘Time-based Sculpture and Documentation’ with yarn by Madison Hendry.
February 18th Feminist Pizza Party: as part of Dining for the Arts with Historic Kenwood.
March is Women’s History Month! Bringing a new exhibit titled ‘Bag Ladies‘ with the art of Judy Lyons Schneider and Alice Harrison.
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.
Can you answer this question? How many people wept tears of gratitude on Saturday at the Museum of Motherhood, either because they felt ‘seen’, ‘heard’, or because they accessed the information they’d been seeking?
The answer is THREE, in addition to the other amazing people we had the pleasure of interacting with. We witnessed the overwhelmed military mom, a traveler from Dallas, and a son who recently lost his mother and was looking for connection. They all dabbed tears from their eyes. Since moving to The Factory in St Pete, we are greeting approximately 1,200 people a month with a mission of informing and inspiring lives while remaining free and open to the public. We are able to do this because of your generous donations.
The non-profit world is hard. It’s a fact that many museums struggle to maintain their collections, buildings and staff. MoM currently has over a dozen community volunteers, a devoted director, a strategic team for infrastructure building and fiscal growth, a commendable collection of mother-made art, and a mission of taking our rightful place in the museum world.
For twenty years, on a shoestring budget, with an unrelenting commitment to thrive, founder Martha Joy Rose has championed the Museum of Motherhood, first through its New York non-profit status with the Motherhood Foundation Inc, to the MaMaPaLooZa Festival, to the streets of Seneca Falls, to Manhattan College, to the Department of Gender and Sexuality at USF in Tampa, to St Petersburg, Florida.
In 2019, the MOM Art Annex 501c3 was approved for Florida non-profit status. Then, the pandemic. MoM pivoted to mentor eighteen interns from around the world with a variety of projects and made its facility available to over a dozen artists in residence supporting mother made art, literature, and performance. Post-pandemic, from 2022-2023, we conducted over 178 in-home tours featuring the artifacts in our permanent collection, hosted healthy community suppers for families in need, and participated in Localtopia. We were able to purchase the Mother Tree for our permanent collection in 2023 and make the transition from the MOM Art Annex office to The Factory in the Arts District of St. Pete.
The Time For MoM’s Sustainability Is Now
We are poised for success. Our ducks are in a row, our noses are clean and our strategy for success is in place. All we need now are the partnerships, dollars, and donors to take this museum production to legacy status. Our goals are to continue to build out community partnerships. This year we added the Fairgrounds St Pete, Heiress Gallery, Girls Rock St Pete, and Naaman Creative to our team of community collaborators.
Our space at The Factory is staffed and ready to greet you. Exhibitions since our opening in September have included Amy Wolf’s wearable collection, and Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job. Plans are underway for our annual spring MoM Conference, and future exhibits with Madison Hendry and Christen Clifford.
Please Donate Today
Our Go Fund Me has launched with a goal of raising $30K. (These dollars have already been matched for our 2023 budget). Now we need to raise the rest! We will be using this money to pay our rent, keep our lights and phone on, and to make our website ADA compliant.
Donations can be made by Check and addressed to 538 28th St. N. St Petersburg, FL 33713, through our Go Fund Me, or on our website. Your support is critical to our success. LINK TO OUR GO FUND ME IS HERE.
Greetings Friends – MoM wants you to be part of this significant, empowering, and impactful outreach initiative. Help MoM build on our successes with you as our partner. Now is the time for our year-end membership and donation drive. Your memberships and donations are our main source of income, keeping us free and open to the public throughout the year. Because of you, we continue to reach people from around the world with this important project.
Significance: We are the first and only Museum of Motherhood in the world, elucidating the art, science, and herstory of women, mothers, and families inclusive of all reproductive identities.
Empowering: We connect with students, travelers, and families reminding them of our collective shared status, our origin stories, and the inherent creativity of the human experience for the empowerment of all.
Impactful: We are devoted to educating the world about the contributions and experience of m/others both historically and in contemporary culture. We intend to fill a longstanding void by focusing on the many roles of women and mothers through our exhibits, events, resource center, scholarship, and educational partnerships. We are taking our rightful place in the museum world.
WE NEED YOUR HELP MORE NOW THAN EVER
We are a grassroots non-profit that has been devoted to the art, science, and herstory of women, mother’s and families since 2003. We have exhibited in the City of Seneca Falls (where the Suffragettes marched for the vote) the UES of New York City, and in multiple universities.
Last year, founder Martha Joy Rose featured exhibits and invited visitors into her domain post-covid and conducted 178 home tours along with sponsoring the work of artists in residence, while hosting free healthful community suppers with YesChefVillage, and creating volunteer and mentorship opportunities with local high school students throughout the semester.
During this time, many of you joined our campaign to purchase the Mother Tree for our permanent collection. Because of you, we were successful. The Mother Tree will be on exhibit at MoM beginning December 2023.
Now, we need you again! Please help us sustain our MOMentum by securing our overhead expenses from January through July 2024. Our rent total is $24 K. Help us keep the doors open, the lights on, and meaningful engagement opportunities happening. These operational expenses must be met in order to continue our work. We believe that together we can do it!
MoM opened its doors at the Factory St. Pete in the warehouse arts district this September. We currently serve 1,200 visitors each month, maintaining our mission of being free and open to the public for those most in need of support, information, conversation, and inspiration.
MULTIPLE WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Donation: Make a donation to MoM in any amount. No amount too small. DONATE
Membership:Join MoM with a membership. Multiple levels of participation are available. JOIN
Membership/Partnership: New Member Sign Up at the FairgroundsSt. Pete use code: MOM23 for free game add on at Fairgrounds St. Pete, as well as a free Activity Map at MoM. Or sign for a new MoM Membership for for add on experience at Fairgrounds! Sign up here with membership at MoM and/or follow links to Fairgrounds St. PeteMemberships.
Conference: Participate in our Annual Academic and Arts Conference. Call for participation is here. Early Bird Conference participation is: $150. SUBMIT
Shop: Go to our store to see new products! Order something online or come by our museum store in person. SHOP
Buy and Activity Map and Tour MoM: $11.50 PURCHASE
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE – STAY BLESSED – WE ARE GRATEFUL TO YOU THIS SEASON!
JOURNAL OF MOTHER STUDIES, CFP MoM CONFERENCE ’24, PODCASTS
The Journal of Mother Studies is now up online at JourMS.org. This 8th edition of the Journal elaborates on Maternal Landscapes from a variety of perspectives including the creative and the clinical. LINK TO JOURMS
Threads of Connection–Sorry/Not Sorry: Confronting mother (and other) blame–healing & resistance in contemporary culture and beyond
St. Petersburg, Florida & Online * March 22-24, 2024 * CFP – Deadline, Dec. 15th. Calling all scholars, artists, and community members for presentations and papers on the subject of mother (and other) blame, shame and pain, with a focus on resistance and healing. This international call for papers invites artists, sociologists, maternal psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, women’s sexuality and gender professors, masculinity studies experts, birth-workers, doctors, researchers, students, and lay-people to share their work. SUBMIT
Podcasts are up with MoM Talks with My Sister. Seven episodes are posted now on a wide variety of topics. This internship project with Bethanie Dell (and her sister) have proved to be much more exciting than we ever could have anticipated! PODCAST PAGE
Stylin’ with Thee Heiress: 4th Tuesday of each month (starting Nov 28th). Help with your child’s hair. Are you able to manage your natural curls? We are here to help. Open to the community with expert guidance. All materials are provided. $30 requested donation but no one turned away for lack of funds. Register in advance please so we know how many hair kits to bring. Call 877-711-MOMS (6667) or write: INFO@MOMmuseum.org. Registration: using this link!
Herstory/History on a cushion: Last Saturday of each month, Join Donika Vlada for history/herstory on a cushion at MoM. Sessions are 2-3:30 with stories, games, art-making, and discovery. Hands on activities offer fun and learning for ages 5 +. Pre-register by filling out our online form, emailing: INFO@MOMmuseum.org or by calling 877-711-MOMS (6667). Donations welcome. Parents can hang out in a chill environment or poke around The Factory.
GO TO OUR EVENTS PAGE TO SEE UPCOMING HAPPENINGS AT MOM