Motherhood and Creative Practice, London

the inimitable Griselda Pollock addresses the audience at the Motherhood and Creative Practice Conference.

This June, Cultural ReProducers took part in not one but two international gatherings exploring the role of motherhood in creative work. Here's our rundown of Part I:  the Motherhood and Creative Practice Conference in London. Stay tuned for more about some of the great people and projects we encountered, and for Part II: the Mothernists, a three-day event in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

For anyone still harboring doubts that great artistic and scholarly work can go hand in hand with the labor of raising a child, this year's Motherhood and Creative Practice Conference, presented from June 1-2 at London South Bank University, offered a resounding affirmation of critical maternal thought.

Rachel Epp Buller presents on lactivist art intervention

During the past five years there has been a groundswell in work exploring the intersections of artmaking and parenthood. As soon as the call for abstracts was announced online, news of the  Motherhood and Creative Practice Conference spread rapidly despite its modest online presence. Organizers Dr. Elena Marchevska and Valerie Walkerdine had expected interest from a small group of local scholars, but soon found their inbox filled with more than 100 proposals from around the world. Being the skilled improvisers that mothers often are, they rose to the occasion and organized two jam-packed days of multimedia presentations by more than 60 leading feminist scholars, psychoanalysts, curators and artists, complemented by a rich program of film screenings, performances, and small exhibitions.

With so many presenters on the schedule, three panels ran simultaneously every hour in different parts of a labyrinthine LSBU building. Unlike more broadly-themed conferences in which deciding which panel to attend depends on your area of specialty, here it was often painfully difficult to choose. To get a sense of the options you can check out the full program online. Philosopher, artist, and psychoanalyst Bracha Ettinger opened the event with a heady discussion on carriance and the matrixial gaze accompanied by a projection of her hypnotic video work (I have since decided that all future lectures involving dense theoretical language should be presented this way). Faith Wilding and Irina Aristarkhova launched the second day with their riveting exploration of the real and speculative ramifications of surrogacy, IVF tourism, exogenesis, and the global market for

Christa introducing Cultural ReProducers

human tissue and egg donation. And prominent art historian and cultural scholar Griselda Pollock miraculously wove everything together into two smart and thoughtful session summaries.

Efforts were made to offer on-site childcare during the conference, albeit for a fee, but unfortunately - whether due to cost, ambivalence, or lack of information - not enough participants signed up to make this option viable in the end. A few mothers bounced, rocked, and fed their babies through sessions, while others worked out arrangements with family members. Several had to rush off before the day was done to collect their kids from local creches or schools.

Those of us visiting from out of town fit in time to visit some of London's great cultural institutions, and parental art seemed to be everywhere, from the abundance of 19th century maternal imagery at the Victoria and Albert Museum to Jaan Toomik's "Dancing with Dad" (2003) at Whitechapel Gallery to the Tate Modern's remarkable Sonia Delaunay retrospective, which highlighted Delaunay's first work of abstraction: a blanket created for her newborn son in 1911.

Mary Kelly was there in spirit, and on video

Like any really good party, not everyone could make it. One notable absence was Mary Kelly, matron saint of mother-artists and a scheduled keynote speaker, who had to cancel at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict. A video was screened of her lecture earlier that week (though technical difficulties made it hard to decipher), followed by a response by scholar and MaMSIE co-founder Dr. Lisa Baraitser. There were noticeably few women of color present, a reflection of another imbalance in academia and the art world that will be important to consider as this conversation continues to evolve. On the intergenerational spectrum of things, though, the conference was incredible. Nursing mothers in the midst of their graduate studies exchanged experiences with seasoned feminist grandmothers. The discussion was also enriched by the voices of artists without children, including Miriam Schaer, who spoke eloquently about cultural bias against childless women and the challenges of “reverse mothering,” or caring for an aging parent.

processing some serious maternal thought over drinks

Beyond the formal presentations, this gathering brought together an incredible number of like-minded artists, curators, and scholars to meet in person for the first time. Catching a quick bite to eat between sessions we connected with members of Dublin’s Mothership Project, Rotterdam's m/other voices, London’s Enemies of Good Art and Invisible Spaces of Parenthood. Informal convoys took over nearby hotel lounges and restaurants to talk late into the night. After closing remarks on Tuesday, LSBU’s Edric Theater buzzed with women exchanging contact information, taking group photographs, and planning future projects. It seems clear that these conversations are just getting started, and we look forward to seeing what’s to come.

Culture Baby, Pram Mobs, and other Enemies of Good Art

Culture Baby at the reUnion, Southwark

To new parents previously accustomed to attending art openings, live performances, lectures, or late night music events, it's easy to feel a bit cut off from things once you've got a small child in your life. While it works for some parents to bring baby along, it can also feel distracting, disruptive, or completely exhausting, depending on the event and the kid. Childcare is an option of course, better for networking and paying attention... but breastfeeding, babysitting costs, and bedtime (for those with early-morning wakeup calls) can make that feel complicated for a while, too.

"It seems illogical that whilst the first 3 years of our children’s lives are the most intense period of growth and learning, these early years can also be an intellectually barren period for the parents." This is a quote from CultureBaby, a London-based project established by art consultant and mama-of-three Lucie Charkin, who decided to take matters into her own hands. From 2010 - 2012 CultureBaby organized artist talks, gallery walks, museum tours and other cultural outings with families of small children in mind. While the events were very toddler-friendly (soft floor mats and thematic activity packs linked to the day's event were often provided), these events were designed to enrich the lives of parents first, allowing them to think and learn alongside their children.

The genius of CultureBaby is that they weren't tied to any one institution, allowing them to take over an art fair, network in a public garden, or organize a special event at a new art venue depending on what's happening in town. In fact part of their mission was "to inspire cultural institutions to better serve us and our demanding toddlers by visiting them and expressing our collective needs in a positive way." And who can argue with that?

This kind of collective energy is behind a whole crop of activist projects aimed at re-shaping the art world in London: the Whitechapel Gallery hosts a series called Crib Notes, #Prammob (also linked to CultureBaby) whch stages impromptu gatherings at interactive public art events, and Enemies of Good Art, an activist group hosting regular meetings and lectures as well as a guerrilla style childcare-share that converged on the Tate Modern in 2011 to allow moms to watch each other's kids so that they can take turns going to take in the art.

Why do art openings have to take place on Friday nights and not Saturday afternoons? Why can't museums offer morning artist lectures for families? Why don't larger cultural institutions offer on-site childcare during events, like the local YMCA and Ikea do? The answer to most of these, I realize, comes down to money. If we're serious about making the art world a place that considers women and men with families as visible/valid/valued participants (and just as deserving of consideration as other patrons of the arts) then our active presence there is an important first step.

Charkin is now based in San Francisco, where she ran a similar project called A Little Culture, and its exciting to think that her energy and mission are spreading. Here in Chicago, we are very fortunate to have great things like JuiceBox, a series of kid-friendly musical performances (including some really excellent experimental jazz), stroller tours of the local Museum of Contemporary Art,  and a truly wacky public-access TV show / dance party event called Chic-a-go-go, which invites punk and indie rockers to be interviewed by a puppet and play to a truly all-ages audience. But reading up on Charkin's inspiring events makes me feel like the rest of us have more work to do in activating spaces where parents and kids can get some cultural stimulation. What kinds of opportunities would you like to see in your city? What interesting events are already happening?