The Mother and… Project seeks to contribute to the growing body of academic feminist and art-historical discourse and scholarship on the intersection of artistic practice and motherhood. The Mother and… Project encompasses an art exhibition, written essays and audio interviews, and be documented, archived, and shared online. The Mother and… Project demonstrates that artist-mothers are not a monolith, but incorporate a multiplicity of intersectional identities, experiences, and lenses.

Debbie Barrett-Jones, Rahele Jomepour Bell,
Laura Berman, Mona Cliff, Julie Farstad,
Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez, Diana Heise, Cory Imig, Sarah Irvin, Priya Kambli, Samantha Krukowski, Linda Lighton, Beili Liu, Sukanya Mani, Adrienne Maples, Amy Meissner, Althea Murphy-Price, and Sonié Joi Thompson Ruffin.

The artist-mothers chosen to participate are mid-career, established artists who have exhibited their works nationally and internationally.  Selected artist-mothers represent a variety of artistic disciplines and work in a wide range of mediums and materials.  The artist-mothers included in this project hail from diverse cultural contexts and experiences that reflect the myriad of ways of being a mother. 

PROJECT
GOALS

  • Demonstrate how the role of mother, rather than being a limitation, opens up capacious possibilities for creative expression and modes of being through by exhibiting the works of the artist-mothers

  • Amplify the visual narratives of artist-mothers from underrepresented communities to demonstrate how black and brown, queer, disabled, single or economically disadvantaged mother artists face additional barriers to establishing a thriving art practice

  • Foster a sense of community for existing artist mothers in the Kansas City Metro area by initiating meaningful dialogue about shared experiences and challenges of artists mothers and potential resources to support this community of creatives

  • Identify tangible strategies for how to balance caring for children and maintain a thriving artistic practice and/or art education career

  • Assemble the artist-mothers in the exhibition as role models for emerging artists who wish to be parents in the future

  • Support a paradigm shift in which the qualities of motherhood that are aligned with collaboration, inclusivity, protection, nurturing, thriving are prioritized in the art world.