Mother Art (Group of Artists)

Formed in 1973 in the Los Angeles Woman's Building, Mother Art was a collective of women artists dedicated to creating sociopolitical art around issues such as the social invisibility of maternal labor and the impact of the lack of socially supported daycare on the professional practices of female artists.

The Mother Art collective was established by five artists from the Feminist Studio Workshop who lacked support from their instructors and fellow participants who did not have children and did not believe it feasible for parents to be serious artists. Jan Cook, Christine Kruse, Helen Million, Suzanne Siegel, and Laura Silagi began meeting weekly in 1973 to advocate for their needs as both mothers and artists. Mother Art's first project was to create a space at the Woman's Building for children, who had not previously been permitted onsite. In 1974, they used electrical cable spools from the Department of Water and Power to build Rainbow Playground in the Woman's Building parking lot. Their next major project, 1975's By Mothers, consisted of an exhibition at the Woman's Building in which ten artists reflected on their personal experience as mothers, with a month-long program series for mothers and children that included workshops, performances, and lectures on motherhood and feminism. A second, larger exhibition, By Mothers was curated by the collective in 1976, with work by women artists from all over the western United States.

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