For the past two years a growing group of Artist/Mothers throughout Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas has come together to produce three exhibitions (Holding Space, Ketchup City Creative, 2022; The Most Possible Kind, Duquesne University’s Les Idées Gallery, 2022; and Tethered In, Ketchup City Creative, 2023). Each exhibition seeks to increase visibility and celebrate the often-unseen role of motherhood and maternal labor.

Our Pittsburgh exhibitions are part of a larger, global initiative, Taking Up Space, championed by the Artist/Mother, now Thrive Together, Network. The Taking Up Space initiative is a grassroots community global art exhibition, empowering female and nonbinary identifying artists. The invitation for these artists is to come together to seek out and create more exhibition opportunities in the art world which has been more historically male dominated. In 2022 and 2023, our Pittsburgh Artist/Mother exhibitions were part of 160+ exhibitions held worldwide through this initiative. We started with nine regional artists in 2022 and grew to twelve in 2023. In 2024, we aim to have twelve to fifteen regional Artist/Mothers.

We are preparing an exhibition at Brew House Arts that explores both shared and individual experiences of mothering and motherhood, and the different stages of the mothering experience, from the mother of a newborn to the mother with an empty nest. These common threads will tie together a wide variety of materials and processes, including photography, soft sculpture and textile, ceramics, mixed media collage, painting, sculpture, and performance.

As a Pittsburgh Artist/Mother exhibition group we are diverse in our age ranges, life experiences, stages of mothering, and outlooks. Caretaking can often be an isolating experience, so we focus on connecting with one another as mothers and as artists, by curating the show as a group. We also create ties with the audience that comes to see the exhibition by holding workshops, performances, and brunches as part of the exhibition.

Participating Artist/Mothers have shown regionally, nationally, and internationally, including locally at the Mattress Factory, Brew House Arts, Contemporary Craft, Assemble, and the Tomakyo Foundation. Participants are active in local arts organizations, including Associated Artists of Pittsburgh , Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh , and Sibyls Shrine, and support the community as writers, instructors, professors, activists, doulas, and small business owners, in addition to their roles as both artists and mothers.