Discover
Explore the journey of “Mothers in Crisis: Then & Now” from its inception in 2022 to the vibrant Art of Motherhood exhibition in October 2023.
Follow the timeline of this two-year creative heritage initiative as it evolved from initial design concepts to its impactful delivery.
Click on the blue arrows to discover the key milestones and creative processes behind each phase, including extensive community engagement, gathering of oral histories, and the development of a performance and exhibitions.
Taster sessions
Throughout the summer of 2022, we facilitated taster sessions at various community venues to engage and recruit mothers of all ages for the project.
Young mums: Creative sessions
We partnered with Talkshop in Sale to run weekly sessions for young mums. These sessions included activities such as songwriting, drama, zine making, and other creative arts.
Young mums: Trip to People’s History Museum
We took a group of young mums and their babies to the People’s History Museum where they got to see a live performance and explored the galleries discovering stories and experiences of mothers and women from the past.
Archive trips
Throughout 2022, we took participants and volunteers to explore the archives at The People’s History Museum and the Working Class Movement Library. The stories we uncovered served as inspiration for our sessions, performances, and exhibitions.
Oral history gathering
After staff and volunteers completed oral history training, we recorded interviews with a diverse group of mothers. This included young mums, first-time mothers during COVID, and older mothers who lived through World War II.
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Regular weekly sessions
We held regular weekly sessions with a group of mothers, including first-time mothers, young mothers, and those with older children. These sessions featured zine making, exploring archive materials, and sharing personal experiences of COVID-19 and World War II.
Continued creative engagement
We held monthly drop-in sessions during the day to allow mothers to attend with their children and babies. These sessions featured activities such as embroidery, zine-making, and other creative arts related to the theme of resilience. The work created during these sessions contributed to the final exhibition.
Elizabeth Gaskell House visit
Participants took a heritage trip to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, which served as inspiration for developing their devised performance, Motherhood Unscripted.
International Women’s Day Event at the People’s History Museum
We held a pop up exhibition at the People’s History Museum on International Women’s Day 2023.
Weekly performance sessions
A core group of 15 mothers, ranging in age from their 20s to their 90s, attended weekly sessions at Stretford Public Hall to create and rehearse for their performance, Motherhood Unscripted. They used oral history, archival material, and their own personal experiences as inspiration for developing the content of the performance.
Motherhood Unscripted
“Motherhood Unscripted” is a unique promenade performance created by the group, blending music, movement, songwriting, drama, and archival material to tell their story. For more details, visit our performance page.
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The Art of Motherhood: An Exhibition of Resilience and Strength
Exhibition materials were gathered through sessions with local mothers, a call for submissions from local artists, and requests for personal “Covid moments” from the community. These contributions were combined to create a public exhibition in October 2023. For more details, visit our exhibition page.
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Evaluation
Working with A Brilliant Thing, our external evaluators, our final report was created, which alongside this archive documents the story and impact of our project.
Evaluation document coming soon, published October 24.
