Copy
MWM: Where are the images of us?
View this email in your browser
Question of the Month:
Where are the images of us?

We are building a website for Mothers Who Make – it is both exciting and revealing. We need images to populate the site. Images of us, of mother-makers. This is proving hard. Images of mothers – no problem. Several millennia of imagery from which to choose, across diverse cultures and continents, from the Virgin Mary to Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, with her latest baby outside the royal palace. Images of women engaged in their creative work – a slightly less extensive library of options but still a wealth available, from Hildegard of Bingen to Frida Kahlo. However, look for images of women engaged in the visible practice of both roles at once – being simultaneously present with their children and engaged in their work – and the pool of options dramatically shrinks.

Read on HERE

Your Month’s Commission: Making Yourself Visible.

Do you have an image of yourself engaged in your creative practice with your child(ren) present – inside, beside you, helping, hindering, playing, running away, watching, being bored, ignoring you, laughing, crying, sleeping? Or could you create one? Could this in itself be a small creative project, to create a portrait of yourself, of your double identities? Please do this, send it to us and help us populate our website and make ourselves visible, because we are here, quietly changing the world.

How to send your image:

  • Please send up to 3 images by email to: Lizzy@motherswhomake.org
  • Please credit yourself, your children, your making and the photographer
  • Please state that you give consent for Mothers Who Make to use this image on our website, social media and marketing materials.
  • Please send us your image/s by the end of July.
  • We may not be able to use all images submitted on the website but will endeavour to honour and celebrate them all in a gallery online or on social media.
  • We’d also love you to post your picture on the Facebook group to share your experience and encourage others to send us a picture.
A Call Out to Take Part

Gemma Kerr and Rachael Spence are two of our mother/ maker commissioned artists and they would like to invite you to be a part of their project.

"I’m collecting stories, anecdotes and memories of women’s experiences of ‘leaks’ for a new project called UNSTOPPERED. These stories might be about getting your period at a difficult moment, having night sweats during the menopause, lying in puddles of breastmilk and wee post-birth.

These stories and confessions will be used to create a podcast that will be a conversation about female ‘leaks’ and about the things that women’s bodies do.  
I would like to start to create a space where women are able to talk about experiences that they might not have shared, or felt able to share. 
I’d like to invite YOU to send me your stories through my website. All stories will remain anonymous. Contributions will be used to create a podcast and create an online archive on Mothers Who Make's forthcoming website - it will be an unstoppered confessional." Gemma
 
Read Gemma's blog post about her experiences that have led her to make this work and send your stories via her website
 


"Have you ever thought F**K. THIS. LIST? I'm a mother of three and I recently embarked on an experiment in domestic equality. I realised I had unwittingly become responsible for most of the work that related to the smooth running of my home and family. So I began to make a list of all the jobs - Every task. All the labour. Every mental note, plan and delegation. Every wash, tidy and repair. Every worry, cuddle and encourage that goes into the maintenance of family life. This became a very long list. 

Do you have a list? A to do list? A shared list? A mental note? A task App? If so I'd love to hear about it. Or please come to the next central London Mothers Who Make meeting to share your list and to research and develop some practical ways of being equally responsible for all these f**king lists. A list shared is a list halved after all..."
Rachael
 
Send your list to fookthislist@gmail.com. The next meeting is on the 25th July from 11am-1:30pm at Theatre Deli, Broadgate. All lists will remain anonymous. 
 
Regular Listings
Bristol: 
Meetings are at Bristol Old Vic
SPECIAL EVENT: Weds 18 July – Pathways for Creative Mothers **
Weds 15 Aug
Weds 19 Sept
10 - 11.30am
Join Facebook group

Exeter:
Meetings are at Exeter Phoenix
Thurs 26 July
Thurs 30 Aug
Thurs 27 Sept
10.30am-12pm
Join Facebook group

Halifax:
Meetings are at Craft Locker
Weds 16 July
Weds 21 Aug
10am-12 noon
Join Facebook Group

London City:
Meetings are at Theatre Deli
SPECIAL EVENT: Weds 25 July - F**K. THIS. LIST.  
11am-1:30pm
Further info via Rachel: fookthislist@gmail.com

South London:
Meetings are at Battersea Arts Centre 
No July meeting, August date coming soon ...
Further info via Matilda: Matilda@motherswhomake.org

North London:
Meetings are at JW3 
Fri 20 July
No meeting in August
Fri 14 Sept
10am-12noon

Manchester:
Meetings are at HOME
Mon 16th July 
Mon 20 Aug
Mon 18 Sept
10.30am - 12.30pm
Join Facebook Group
 
Newcastle:
Meetings are at Northern Stage
Wednesday 4th July
Wednesday 1st August
10.30am-12pm
Like Facebook page here

Just Launched! Oxford
Meetings are at The Oxford Playhouse
Tues 24 July
Tues 21 Aug
10.30am-12.30pm
Join Facebook Group
 
Sheffield
Meetings are at Crucible Lyceum Studio 
No meetings in July and August
Back in September
10.30am-12.30pm
Join Facebook group


NEW HUB! South Devon
Meetings at Clay Factory, Ivybridge
Weds 18 July
Weds 15 Aug
Weds 26 Sept
10.30am-12pm
Join Facebook Group
 
Just Launched! Stroud
Meetings are at Atelier Arts
FRI 31 Aug
2-4pm
Book here

York
Meetings are at York Art Gallery
Wednesday 11th July
10-11.30am
Join Facebook group
New Groups coming up
Coming in September:

Barnsley
Meetings are at The Cooper Gallery
LAUNCHES: Thurs 27 September
 
Cardiff
Meetings are at Chapter
Date TBC
 
Also watch this space for hubs opening in Birmingham, Colchester, Cambridge, Frome, Glasgow, Herefordshire, Ipswich, Leicester, Liverpool and Norwich.
 

Is your area not on the list?

Get in touch to make a MWM hub happen near you: matilda@motherswhomake.org
** Pathways for Creative Mothers
Weds 18 July 10-11.30am Bristol Old Vic
In Our Hands Theatre is offering a free workshop to Mothers Who Make. Expect to move, to sing, maybe even draw or write. Exploring how we as artist mums can utilise some of the less desirable experiences of being a mother; rage, loss (of sleep, autonomy) and restriction (on time and personal space) to access our inner strength and transform these experiences in to art. Children welcome!
 
We’re delighted to hear that In Our Hands Theatre was born in Mothers Who Make Bristol.
PS from our friends ... 
We delighted to share news from Procreate Project. They have been busily working to launch a new online shop that champions and promotes artists who are mothers. Read more here: https://www.procreateproject.com/buyart/
 
 
And… Parents and Carers in The Performing Arts campaign (PIPA) has joined forces with Birkbeck University and a number of major organisations across dance, music, opera and theatre to call for performing arts sector professionals to add their voice to the UK’s biggest ever survey of workers’ work/life balance. They need to hear from both parents and non-parents for this research which has the potential to revolutionise working practices for all, across the Industry. Take part here
Copyright ©  2018 Mothers Who Make All rights reserved.
www.improbable.co.uk/motherswhomake

Our mailing address is:
office@improbable.co.uk

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list