User:Messitt/sandbox

About
The Mother Load is a global network of women who have connected through the simple act of passing a name from one person to another, creating an elaborate community of women who are both artists and mothers. A collaborative installation and interactive global community project bringing artist-mother-participants together, The Mother Load project was created by US-based artists Lesli Robertson and Natalie Macellaio in 2012. Both new mothers—Macellaio with twins and Robertson with a young son—they sought a community of artists who understand what it meant to be both a mother and a creative professional—and ultimately, what it means to be a professional mother in the world today. Together, they created The Mother Load “to encourage dialogue and connection between women who balance artistic careers and motherhood” around the world. Since it’s inception, their project has become a hybrid of global conversation, a community or creative mothers, a growing narrative around motherhood and creativity locally and internationally, and community engagement. It is a virtual and in-person space within which participants (and patrons engaging with exhibits and/or programming) share, collaborate and support each other and our work.

And, in some ways, Robertson and Macellaio are fostering a community within which conversations that are “not so focused on telling you that you can either have it all or not,” rather they wade in the grey areas that reflect the truth they found in their own lives—professional mothers live in a constant state of seeking balance. The Mother Load has become a visual representation of and dialogue around this grey space.

Grounded in the visual arts, Robertson, a textile designer, and Macellaio, a metalsmith, began with a simple, narrative-driven collaborative exhibition:"“The Mother Load begins by sending small copper plates to individual artists and asking them to leave their fingerprint and that of their children. The copper plate oxidizes over time, gradually revealing this form of identity - one that changes the moment you become a mother. The second side of the copper plate holds a QR code that points to the artists’ website, tying this project back to the individual artist and the connection their hands have to their practice and their relationships. We ask each contributing artist to share about their role as an artist and mother, giving us a small window into their thoughts about their creative practice.”"As patrons experience The Mother Loads’ interactive exhibits, they’re able to access the work of each artists-mother-participant, as well as their individual voices (in text), expanding on how they see their role as an artists and a mother in their field, in their community, and/or in their culture.

Artist-Mother-Participants
Artist-Mother-Participants of the Mother Load first came from inside the United States, but quickly reached beyond North America and has recahed New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, Germany, the United Kingdom and beyond. With each month, the projects grows in participant numbers. This includes:  Anila Quayyum Agha, Haley Bates, Iris Bechtol, Nathalie Bikoro, Lilly Blue, Bobby Britnell, Rachel Epp Buller, Elsa Cappelli, Monica Carrier, Janet Chaffee, Reuma Chayot, Elizabeth Claffey, Julie Comnick, Miyuki Akai Cook, Colette Copeland, Jane Corbett, Kayli Cusick, Denis Stringer Davis, Kandace Davis, Mali de-Kalo, Susan Diachisin, Dornith Doherty, Sasha Duerr, Diane Durant, Lisa Ehrich, Stella Ehrich, Catharine Ellis, Rebecca Ellison, Sarah Maxwell English, Joy Christiansen Erb, Martha Falsetta, Andrea Feeser, Pavlina Cierna Fichta, Masumi Kataoka Fielder, Ari Fish, Kate Fisher, Junko Otake Foellmer, Deborah Springstead Ford, Cadi Fröhlich, Jessica Fuentes, Amy Holmes George, Adriana Martinez Gonzalez, Jill Baker Gower, Robyn Goss, Andrea Graham, Magda Grohman, Rachel Hayes, Pat Hickman, Etty Horowitz, Bronwen Houck, Jin-Ya Huang, Melinda Hurst-Frye, Zoe Irvine, Nancy Cohen Israel, Claire Joyce Johnson, Laura Kante, Jane Keith, Anya Kivarkis, Danielle Khoury, Jeana Klein, Helen Knowles, Kris Koenigsberg, Kate Kretz, Laura Larson, Marian Lefeld, Brenda Lichman, Ana Lopez, Kathy Lovas, Liz Lurie, Shona MacDonald, Natalie Macellaio, Mary Kate Maher, Caren McCaleb, Becky McDonah, Tina Medina, Jennie Milner, Susan Mollet, Dvora Morag, Leslie Murrell, Veroniccah Muwonge, Simone O'Callaghan, Mila Oshin, Sally Packard, Harmony Padgett, Shin Yu Pai, Elaine Palowicz, Jasna Kraji Pavlovec, Jennifer Pepper, Mojca Perse, Jo Pollitt, Rachel Power, Melissa Rackham, Ann Coddington Rast, Danielle Riede, Leisa Rich, Shira Richter, Linda Ridgway, Lesli Robertson, Nina Rodin, Jen Rose, Emily Sall, Aqsa Shakil, Marina Shterenberg, Pernille Spence, Brooks Stevens, Sarah Sudhoff, Estelle Thompson, Kim Thornton, Lupita Tinnen, Mary Trunk, Lien Truong, Ellen Frances Tuchman, Rebekah Tyler, Jenny Vogel, Eti Wade, Valerie Walker, Jayne Wilton, Erika Winstone, Nina Young

Events, Community Engagement, and Shows
The Mother Load has shown at the Dallas Museum of Art’s Center for Creative Connections (September 2014 – March 2015). In Dallas, community members were asked to participate in the exhibit through responses to the question, “In your life right now, what do you nurture and why?” and their responses have helped Robertson and Macellaio further understand and identify ways The Mother Load can also impact professional mothers beyond the arts.[1] Committed to engaging with artsits from afar and in-person, The Mother Load collaborated with the DMA to bring Israeli artist Shira Richter (participant in The Mother Load), a visual performance lecture, Hot Potato Called Mother to Dallas in October 2014.

The Mother Load project is currently collaborating on the development of an exhibition and series of workshops to bring together local and international arts practitioners, academics, research scientists, sociologists, caregivers and young people at the Hannah Maclure Centre in Dundee, Scotland. The focus of these efforts is to broaden the impact of this project, inviting the local community to participate in a process of critical making and discourse, community building and creative expression to investigate ways to strengthen creative networks, enabling members to thrive as individuals. Collaborators include: Clare Brennan, Curator, Hannah Maclure Centre, Dundee, Scotland; Simone O’Callaghan, Digital Practice Artist and Lecturer Digital Interactive Art, Abertay University, Dundee, Scotland; Pernille Spence, Performance artist and Lecturer, University of Dundee, Scotland; and Zoe Irvine, Performance and sound artist, Edinburgh, Scotland.