A child from the future finds a portal in the park and tells you a story about ecological collapse.

You see your favorite reading lamp and armchair in a new way during lockdown and turn them into a domestic sculpture.

A mother-artist-activist invites us to think about how we care for the 21st century while hanging out in a disco installation.

Artists who are also parents navigate all-consuming roles that compete with each other, in the best of circumstances. Living in pandemic times further exacerbates these challenges. How, then, does one as an artist, a parent, a caregiver, or a professional in the world, “make it work”? Some artists embrace the generative possibilities of parenthood, through subject matter, collaboration, or new rhythms and processes. For others, caring labors offer a lens through which to consider institutional structures, political reform, activism, intergenerational knowledge, and more sustainable futures. Making It Work brings together six contemporary artists from around the US whose familial bonds and extended caring communities creatively inform their artistic practices. Through drawings and prints, audio and photography, installation and participatory work, these artists engage the ties of kinship, tell stories across generations, posit caregiving as a political act, and develop community-minded initiatives for change.

Featured Artists: Pilar Agüero-Esparza, Alberto Aguilar, Christa Donner, Lise Haller Baggesen, Cara Romero, and Jina Valentine

Programming by Black Lunch Table    

Curated by Dr. Rachel Epp Buller and Maria Velasco

In partnership with the Spencer Museum of Art.

Opening Reception: May 27, 5-9pm

Curators’ Gallery Tour: May 27, 7pm

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: June 25, 1pm (virtual)

Artist and Mother Film Screening + Discussion: June 30, 7 pm

Artists’ Table: July 9, 12 pm (virtual)

Choices Film Screening + Discussion: July 12, 7 pm

People’s Table: July 16, 1230pm  (virtual)

Curators’ Presentation: July 28, 7 pm | Lecture on Dr. Epp Buller’s book Inappropriate Bodies: Art, Design, Maternity and the first local screening of Velasco’s film All of Me: Artists+Mothers

Closing Reception: July 29, 5-9 pm, featuring an original poetry reading by Poet TL Sanders from 6:30-7 pm.