During our 6-month tenure, art/mamas will work to generate greater visibility, legitimacy, and acceptance for artist mothers in the male-dominated art world through a series of discursive events modelled on our monthly meetings. These gatherings are over a shared meal where the discussion tends to unfold around the intersections of our experiences as working artists, mothers, (many of us of immigrant descent). For PLOT, the roundtable discussions we will bring in collaborators to address a range of topics such as intergenerational dialogue and mentoring with senior artists from the Vancouver community; precarious labour within academia; and, media art, motherhood, and activism. We will be reflecting on feminist perspectives on artistic creation throughout and a final gathering will manifest in a series of studio and performance-based works by artist mothers in the community at large that respond to our collective process at Access Gallery with a concluding publication.
September 16- 18, 2021
Intergenerational Dialogue of Artist Mothers
Hosted by ACCESS GALLERY / 222 E. Georgia Street via ZOOM
In this conversation, participants of different ages are invited to discuss the impacts of motherhood on their artistic practices and consider the shifting historical moments shaping possibilities for artist-mothers in Canadian visual art institutions, art schools, and within culture at large. We will also be tracing the continuing history of individual and collective organizing that creates opportunities and support for artist mothers, along with the role that curators and archives play in generating and preserving these histories.
Our discussion will explore projects and artworks that specifically address the subject and experience of maternity, understood through an inclusive lens.
September 30-October 2, 2021
Precarious labour and Motherhood
Hosted by ACCESS GALLERY / 222 E. Georgia Street via ZOOM
How does the absence of predictable, stable employment in academic institutions affect working mothers who are also artists? What are the particular pressures and possible responses to economic precarity when situated within the demands of ensuring stability, security, and meeting the material needs of children and others in our care? Are there ways in which we can create broad-based networks that support collective organizing and caretaking beyond normative models of the nuclear family? Participants in this explorative conversation are invited to consider these questions in the context of the professionalization of art labour, increases in the number of degree-granting fine arts programs, and the adverse effects of precarity of teaching for people in parenting roles. This session will not be recorded to ensure the privacy and anonymity of those in attendance, but alternative forms of documentation will be discussed by the group.
October 14 – October 16, 2021
Film and Motherhood
Hosted by ACCESS GALLERY / 222 E. Georgia Street via ZOOM
In this conversation, the complex and various relationships of, engendered by, and toward motherhood will be explored through documentary film and experimental video works selected by local and international artist-filmmaker-mothers. We will consider the roles and challenges of motherhood as explored through the diverse and culturally specific perspectives in a film and video program and as it intersects with being an artist/filmmaker today. A parallel screening of selected works will be available for participants to view in advance of our dialogue with the artist-mother-filmmakers.
October 28- 30, 2021
Making Space for Time: Artist Parents Creative Meet and Make
Hosted by ACCESS GALLERY / 222 E. Georgia Street via ZOOM
In this session, self-identified artist-parents are invited to make informal work in the shared space of a virtual studio. Distraction will be encouraged and children are welcome as we make shared artworks and develop personal connections while discussing issues of interest. Guiding topics include the often solitary, intermittent conditions of working from home as an artist-parent, as well as the deviation from the ‘ideal’ career-path of the art world professional that this working environment represents. The session will begin with brief introductions and move to an activity in which participants will be invited to create a visual response to a specific prompt with relevant creative constraints. This session will not be recorded to ensure the privacy and anonymity of those in attendance, but alternative forms of documentation will be discussed by the group.