Currently Sara and Angela are in transitional phases in their lives and thus so is EP. We are working on visioning the next phases of EP.

Read our OPP Featured Artist Blog interview.

And check out this review of Extended Self: Transformations and Connections

This is an evolving project - we'd love your feedback and ideas!

Virtual Workshop: Holding on and letting go
>>with Art Therapist, Lucy Scott<<

Wed April 2th, and May 11th 2022
7:30pm CST
Virtual Event | Register Here

Angela Lopez (She/Her) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Holding on and letting go with Lucy Scott and Extended Practice
Time: Apr 27, 2022 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Art Therapist, Lucy Scott is back with two more events. Over the course of this pandemic grief and loss have been a common theme coming up in support spaces geared towards caregivers. The loss of people, the loss of resources, the loss of momentum, loss connected to what we thought this time in our lives might be. Looking at loss can feel overwhelming, but acknowledging hardship and feeling seen in those struggles can transform one from feeling isolated to connected.
Lucy will offer two more art therapy workshops within a two week time frame. The first on April 27th will reckon more directly with our griefs and losses. The second event on May 11th, we again connect to our creative resources to engage more intentionally with our present.
April is national poetry month. If there is a poem or quote or similar offering that you would like to bring to the next workshop that helps you deal with this topic you are encouraged to do so.
Lucy Scott is an Art therapist and Licensed clinical professional counselor who specializes in complex trauma and currently works with children and youth in care. She is a mother of two and is working to be a better friend and community member outside her nuclear family. She is interested in co-creating and being in loving spaces.
This event is free, but please consider a donation via our GoFundMe when you sign up. We prioritize paying our artists when possible, and your donations will directly compensate our presenting artists in this event series.

Virtual Meetup: We, Family: Held
>> with A.Martinez <<

April 2 + 9, 2022 10-11:30 am CST
Virtual Event | Register here
suggested donation

We, Family: Held is a 2-part series for mothers and nonbinary parents in the arts to come together in a loosely structured and discussion-led environment to check in with one another as we enter year three of the pandemic.

The group is facilitated by poet and artist mom A.Martinez, who will lead discussions and activities that encourage both vulnerability and strength as people and as mothers/nonbinary parents in the arts.

To encourage discussion, the group will cap at 12 participants and will meet twice in succession to build on the first meetup. We will come together to speak our minds, hear and see each other in our struggles and our triumphs, and ideally build a reserve of strength with each other that we can carry with us back into the world.

50% of the spots in the in the group are reserved for BIPOC mothers/nonbinary parents. Once the groups have filled up, you will be added to a waitlist. Please communicate via eventbrite if you are not able to join so we can make room for another mom/parent!

We pay our people: Please help us prioritize creative labor by supporting this and other upcoming Extended Practice Events via our gofundme

Virtual Workshop: Nurture & Connect
>>with Art Therapist, Lucy Scott<<

Wednesday March 2nd 2022 7:30pm - 9:00pm CST
Virtual event |Register here

Join us for an open art therapy session led by Art Therapist, Lucy Scott! This session will be a nurturing place to connect with a community of artist mothers. Participants will have the chance to reflect on their needs, identify supports, and explore the connections between play, nurture, creativity and community.

This will be a strengths-based session, creating space for participants to identify stressors through a guided meditation, and an opportunity for all to create a playful art response (without a focus on product!).

*Please bring a notepad or several sheets of paper, and the drawing media of your choice.

Lucy Scott is an Art therapist and Licensed clinical professional counselor who specializes in complex trauma and currently works with children and youth in care. She is a mother of two and is working to be a better friend and community member outside her nuclear family. She is interested in co-creating and being in loving spaces.

This event is free, but please consider a donation via our GoFundMe when you sign up. We prioritize paying our artists when possible, and your donations will directly compensate our presenting artists in this event series.

Shelter in Place: An Afternoon with Artist Mothers
Monday May 24th 2021
3:30 - 4: 30 p.m. CDT
This is a virtual event
Register Here

Join us in a virtual sharing and discussion with a selection of artists from the new book, Shelter in Place. Artist Mothers Work: A collection of works from the first six months of the Coronavirus pandemic, compiled by Tulika Ladsariya and Angela Lopez.

Participating artists Noelle Garcia, Elan Cadiz, Sara Khan, Alyssa Martinez and Jessica Mueller, will share their contributions to the book, and engage in an interactive discussion led by Ladsariya and Lopez.
Donations Suggested - Registered Participants will receive a free pdf of the book. (All funds raised will be used to directly compensate artists presenting their work.) Register Here

We hope to see you there!

Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 979 1231 8228
Passcode: 46BgN2

Four fantastic art shows to catch before they’re gone
By LORI WAXMAN | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | JAN 22, 2020

excerpt: "Maybe you want to start off 2020 right by taking in some meaningful, surprising, or just otherwise very good art. Unfortunately, most new shows won’t be on display until late January or early February, so what to do other than curl up under a cozy blanket and look at last year’s catalogues and coffee table books? Thankfully, a handful of museums and galleries keep their temporary exhibitions up through the new year, four of which are particularly worth braving the chilly weather to go and see.

“Extended Self: Transformations & Connections” at the Hyde Park Art Center provides the kind of reflections I have been seeking out since giving birth to my first child a decade ago. Though the show itself feels heavy-handed at times, the work — by 16 artist-mothers whose mediums range from soft sculpture and beadwork to stop-frame animation — never does, whether for reasons of levity, loveliness or liveliness. The subsumption of the maternal body by the needs of its baby finds painfully funny expression in Kaitlynn Redell’s self-portraits of mom-as-furniture, tending to the well being of her own little one while disguised as a rocking chair, table or walker. Something similar, but more like what happens as children get older, is the balancing act on view in Jessica Mueller’s collaboration with her two teens, a public weigh-in where the kids hang on to their mother and she stands on a scale, bearing them all. The collages of Emily Lindskoog, unfixed and comprised of equal parts artistic and domestic items — oil pastel on paper but also rubber toy pieces and a handle from a mug her kid broke — neatly recompose the messiness of life with offspring. Having one’s own most demanding, wondrous and ongoing relationships represented through art can offer invaluable support, especially when those ties have for so long received short shrift."
Full article here

image: Emily Lindskoog, Winter Break (detail)

EXTENDED SELF: TRANSFORMATIONS AND CONNECTIONS

OCTOBER 12, 2019 – February 9, 2020
RECEPTION OCTOBER 12, 2019 From 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
HYDE PARK ART CENTER (5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615)

CHICAGO (FALL 2019)—Hyde Park Art Center (5020 S. Cornell) is proud to announce “Extended Self: Transformations and Connections,” a group exhibition featuring the work of artists whose work has been extended, amplified, or transformed by the experience of motherhood. Curated by the collaborative Extended Practice - co-founded by Sara Holwerda and Angela Lopez - this exhibition, Resource Library, and accompanying programming aim to highlight the intersections between art-making and parenting as well as increase visibility for artists who are mothers. The exhibition will be on view in the Art Center’s Kanter McCormick Gallery from October 12, 2019 until January 19, 2020. A public reception with the artists, as well as live performances, will take place on Saturday, October 12, 2019 from 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

“Extended Self: Transformations and Connections” features artwork by a diverse group of artists at various stages of art-making and parenting. All works included in the show reveal the physical engagement of the body of the artist as a mother - in metaphor, form, process, image, data or motion. This is a unifying yet divergent premise, allowing for a diversity of work and of artists. Work in the show is grouped in intimate “conversations,” illuminating the importance of having other artist mother role models, and of building a community to support each other through the challenges of parenting and maintaining a creative practice.

In the center of the exhibition space is the Resource Library and Reading Room - an interactive place for parents and children to gather and connect with each other. This visible, accessible and nurturing space allows families to play, rest, feed, and explore mother artist-made books and zines. Also represented here are artist-run initiatives from all over the world that have sprung up to meet the social, professional and practical needs of artist mothers. This Reading Room will serve as a meeting place for various family-friendly programming throughout the exhibition, emphasizing the need for social support structures and role models in the life of an artist mother.

Through the exhibition, Resource Library and Reading Room, and family-friendly programming, “Extended Self: Transformations and Connections” highlights the importance of representation and visibility of artists who mothers in the art world, and to view their experiences as vital to meaningful art production.

Artists whose work is featured in the exhibition include: Tanya Aguiñiga, Wisdom Baty, Andrea Chung, Karen Dana, Sabba Elahi, Noelle Garcia, Megan Hildebrandt, Jessica Labatte, Emily Lindskoog, Bobbi Meier, Jessica Mueller, Irene Perez, Kaitlynn Redell, Tracy Marie Taylor, Selina Trepp, and Marie Watt

Artists whose publications and projects are featured in the Resource Library and Reading Room include: Rachel Epp Buller, Christa Donner, Sarah Irvin, Keiler Roberts, Raina Martens, Corrie Thompson, Hui-MIn Tsen, and more!

Free and family-friendly programming accompanies this exhibition, including: opening night performances, artist-led stroller tours, artist mother meet-ups, family art-making workshops and other special events. Visit the website for dates and full descriptions.

Images: (L) Jessica LaBatte Shadow Plants #19, 2017, Archival pigment print mounted to dibond, Courtesy of the artist and Western Exhibitions Chicago, (R) Jessica Mueller, Public Weigh In, 2018, Ongoing Performance,

Workshop: Self Care Tools for Artist Parents
>>with Art Therapist, Lucy Scott<<

Sat Nov 9th 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615
Space is limited SIGN UP HERE

Work with art therapist Lucy Scott on an engaging, tactile, found-object, art therapy experience. Through this guided exercise, participants will use metaphorical, magical or literal thinking to create a self care gift or a tool that they would give to themselves. Scott will support participants in exploring materials and playful experimentation of ideas. Artist mothers will have the chance to reflect holistically on themselves as people, parents and makers.

This workshop is geared toward artists who are parents, and is adults only due to the nature of the workshop. Childcare with art activities will be provided by HPAC teens!

Space is limited SIGN UP HERE

Image: Kaitlynn Redell, not her(e) (table)

Stroller Tour
Sat Oct 19th
10:00 am - 11:00 a.m.
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615

Join Angela Lopez on a tour of Extended Self: Transformations and Connections. Joining her will be exhibiting artist, Noelle Garcia. Gain a deeper insight into the work on view and the process of putting the show together. Following the tour, walk to the main gallery for a brief talk with artist and Center Program participant Anne Stevens in front of her work. Open to the public, families welcome.

Artist Mother Meet-ups:
Mon Oct 21st, 10.a.m. to 11:30
Sat Nov 9th, 10.a.m. to 11:30
Sat Dec 7th, 10.a.m. to 11:30

Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615

Join Extended Practice in the Kantor McCormick Gallery for a monthly, casual meet up of artist mothers. Each meet-up we will engage in a guided conversation to discuss various topics related to the particular challenges of striking a work-life balance as an artist mother. Meet other creative mothers, discuss the joys and challenges of parenting while maintaining an art practice.

Light refreshments served. Kids, babies, and nursing mothers are welcome.

Image: taken from New Mom Artist Meetups at Roman Susan Gallery in 2018

Screening: Mother Art Tells Her Story
by Laura Silagi, Suzanne Siegel and Deborah Krall
Jan 8th 7:00pm
Hyde Park Art Center - Muller Meeting Room
5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615

Mother Art Tells Her Story focuses on the turbulent times of the 1970’s and the 1980’s through the use of personal narrative; touching on issues of “women’s work,” homelessness, reproductive rights, the nuclear arms race during the Reagan years, activism, collaboration and much more. This 40 minute video is a slice of history by Mother Art, a collective of eight women artists.

TRAILER

Stroller Tour
Mon Dec 16th
10:00 am - 11:00 a.m.
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615

Join Sara Holwerda on a tour of Extended Self: Transformations and Connections. Joining her will be exhibiting artist, Bobbi Meier. Gain a deeper insight into the work on view and the process of putting the show together. Following the tour, walk to the studios of the artists-in-residence, Katherine Lampert and Tanya Gill, for a brief talk on how being a mother has influenced their practice. Open to the public, families welcome.

Big news! We are starting an Extended Practice Book/Zine collection! It will not only be an online resource of books and zines, but a physical collection as well. The collection will include books and zines, related to being an artist and a mother. We will also include children's books by artists or about art. This collection will come with us to all future events, workshops, and exhibitions, including one big exhibit coming up at the end of this year. Stay tuned! In the meantime look out for updates on our website where we will have a page dedicated to sponsors of the collection, a list of all the books and where to find them.

Feel free to contact us with suggestions. If you are a publisher or creator of a zine or book about being an artist and parent, let us know.

Family Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Sat, Dec 8, 2018, 11 am–3 pm

SEE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT HERE

Join Extended Practice and “Design a Wayfinding (treasure) Map” showing multiple ways you could creatively overcome obstacles to reach your goals (or find your treasure).

Using the idea of Wayfinding and mapmaking as guides, Co-creators of Extended Practice will guide parents and their children in side-by-side map-making, using treasure maps as a fun and metaphorical guide. As children draw paths to their treasure boxes through challenging terrain, adults will identify and depict their own goals, as well as discover what obstacles get in the way of their goals. Parents will identify an unmet goal - their “treasure,” and will find creative ways to depict challenges or roadblocks preventing them from meeting that goal - are they “immovable like a mountain? Or dis-tractable, like a dragon?” All visitors can choose to work independently, as well as collaboratively, to come up with multiple creative solutions - “detours” - to move forward toward their goals. Emphasis will be placed on brainstorming/ planning multiple pathways around roadblocks - or even planning for multiple goals.

For the past six weeks we've been immersed in a powerful project with new artist mothers, in an inclusive exhibition and intergenerational meeting space we created at Roman Susan in Chicago. We warmly invite you to join us for the closing reception:

Firsts and Starts: Art Making as a New Mother
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 23 // 3-6 PM 2018
Roman Susan Gallery
1224 West Loyola Avenue, Rogers Park

Firsts and Starts: Art-Making as a New Mother supported artists who are also new mothers by providing an intergenerational meeting and exhibition space within the gallery. Visually, the gallery was divided into two areas (the two inextricable realms of the new artist mother): space available for children (below) and space available for creative practice (above). The delineation between the two areas became blurred as the space filled with our children and artwork. Exuberant lines drawn by children leapt up - and oh so close! - to the creative work carefully installed by mothers above. At every turn the space below is pulling from - and at moments harmonizing with - the space above. The chalk, crayon and baby blankets underfoot activate and transform the space, while also representing the unyielding presence of parenthood in our creative practices. Everywhere you look, you get a sense of the surprises and challenges of art-making as a new mother.

Self-identified new artist mothers were welcome to bring their children and their creative work to this space for a series of three meet-ups and several artist-supported installation sessions. At the meet-ups, we (new artist mothers) gathered together to discuss our individual successes and challenges. These conversations explored the day-to-day as well as overarching concerns: from how to manage childcare to how we define our studio practice. We discussed self-care and the ways in which our choices of material, process or scale shifted as we became parents. We recognized the importance of building community and looking to other artist mothers for inspiration or guidance. In our artist-led installation sessions we discussed individual art practices, projects and bodies of work while our children played.

In this space, we formed new relationships and professional networks. Practices, ideas and projects that had been on hold during the tough first months and years of becoming a new parent were picked up and pursued with renewed excitement. We shared new work and new ways of working. We held each other's' children and artwork as we weighed placement options. Together, we created space in the art world where there wasn't space before - space for uncertainty and power, survival and healing, space for women and children, for artists who are mothers.

Artists:
Soheila Azadi, Araidia Blackburn, Lauren Flaaen, Noelle Garcia, Nichole Harrod, Sara Holwerda, Emily Lindskoog, Angela Lopez, Sally Paul, Jill Pridemore Matthews, Mo Bella Russo, Molly Roth Scranton, Johannah Silva, Raychel Steinbach, Tracy Marie Taylor, Corrie Thompson, and Hui-min Tsen

Firsts and Starts: Art-Making as a New Mother

Closing Reception Sat. June 23rd 3p-6p 2018
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays 3-6pm

Roman Susan (1224 W Loyola Ave)
Exhibition Begins May 19th

New artist mom meet-ups
Thu. May 17th @ 9:30am
Wed. May 30th @ 9:30am
Mon. June 11th @ 9:30am
SEE PHOTOS OF THE MEET UPS HERE!

Firsts and Starts, features the work of new artist mothers in an intergenerational, interactive exhibition and meeting space. In this space, new artist mothers and their work are made visible at a time of rapid personal and creative transformation. Organized by Extended Practice - an artist-led project created to support and make visible the work and needs of artist mothers - Firsts and Starts will explore and demonstrate the kinds of shifts needed to support meaningful and productive engagement of new mothers in the art world. During the run of the exhibition, we will host three New Artist Mother meetups and a closing reception. These events inside the gallery elevate and make visible the process of grappling with the shifts in a new mother’s creative practice.

Visually, the exhibition engages the two worlds of the new artist mother: the lower portion of the space is available to children and the upper portion is an additive display of the creative work of mothers. The installation will begin with the artwork of Emily Lindskoog, Tracy Marie Taylor, and Angela Lopez - who met at a new moms group hosted by Swedish Covenant Hospital and still look to each other for support in balancing parenthood and art making. Joining them will be groups of self-identified new artist mothers – maybe even you! – who will engage in an artist-led and collaborative process for installing their own creative work in the exhibition, as their children play below. The gallery space will grow as a document of the evolving social networks, conversations and creative practices of the participating artist mothers. Outside of the New Artist Mom meet-ups the gallery will be open to the public - parents and non-parents alike - everyone is welcome!

facebook event page

Image credit: Tracy Marie Taylor - acrylic painting

We're launching an Artist Mother Meet-Up initiative in your neighborhood! Build on the contacts you made at our events last fall, or make new ones. We're hoping to connect small groups in Chicago and beyond, and we need your input.

Please CLICK HERE fill out this survey if you would like to attend, host, or both

Empowered Production: An Afternoon for Artist Parents with Selina Trepp

SEE PHOTOS HERE

Sunday November 19th 2017----- 11a -1:30 pm
Experimental Station (6100 S Blackstone Ave)
Registration Fee: $10 includes lunch provided by Hoshe's Way and childcare
Registration Closed

Join us for an afternoon with artist Selina Trepp! Trepp will give an artist talk and lead a discussion about how she empowers herself as a mother and artist. She will discuss her multi-disciplinary art practice, and will go into detail about how parenthood has affected her artistic production. Trepp will explain how she navigates logistics, politics, and money in her practice, and her interactions with institutions. Trepp’s talk will be followed by a Q&A/ discussion.

Following the talk, participants are invited to a networking lunch - and brainstorming session - guided by founders of Extended Practice, Sara Holwerda and Angela Lopez. This session will allow individuals to focus on making connections with other artists parents and to envision how some of Trepp's strategies could apply to their own practices. Participants will explore what strategies they can build on to empower themselves as artists and mothers.

VISUAL MUSIC: A Family-Friendly Performance by SPECTRALINA

SEE PHOTOS HERE

SPECTRALINA is the collaborative audio-visual performance project of artists, musicians and parents Dan Bitney and Selina Trepp. Working with an improvisational structure, Spectralina combines singing, percussion, electronics and real-time video processing. Together, Bitney and Trepp create an engaging image and sound relationships in their performances, in which projected animation and improvised sounds come together as visual music.

Sunday November 19th 2017 ----- 2:00 - 3:00 pm
Experimental Station (6100 S Blackstone Ave)
Free and open to the public. Children and families welcome.

WAYS WE MAKE:
Mothers of Color Nurturing and Building Our Creative Communities

SEE PHOTOS HERE

Are you a mother of color who makes things? How do you find the time and space to create? Join us for Ways We Make - a gathering and celebration of black and brown mothers who want to share their artistry
as well as their strategies for how to create and thrive as moms. We invite all mothers to this event series supporting the work and needs of artist mothers of color, their children and their families. *Registration is required for Oct 30th

Monday, October 30th, 2017 5:00 -7:30pm
Childcare-Supported Gathering & Potluck
The first event is a childcare-supported gathering of mothers who make things. As children engage in supervised play and art making, mothers will connect with each other over a shared meal and guided conversation.
Registration Closed

Tuesday, November 7th, 5:30 - 7:00pm 2017
Intergenerational Exhibition/ Sharing
At the second event we will celebrate the creative work of mothers of color. Everyone is welcome to join us for this one-night exhibition and sharing: families and extended support networks of friends, fans and supporters.

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave
Two-event series: Monday October 30, 5:00 - 7:30 and Tuesday November 7, 5:30 -7:00


Event series created and led by Wisdom Baty, in collaboration with Extended Practice and Experimental Station.

Pop Up Exhibit
Accumulated Gestures and Speculative Futures
Featuring artists and mothers, Christa Donner and Megan Hildebrandt

SEE PHOTOS HERE

Sunday September 17th - October 11th 2017
Present Place Chicago (3701 N Ravenswood Ave Ste 247-248)

Animation Screening
Quickening: Experimental Animations by Mothers

Saturday, October 7th, 2017 6pm
Nightingale Cinema (1084 N Milwaukee Ave)
Suggested Donation: $7-$10

This international program of experimental animations illuminates the connection between the process of animation and the experience of parenting, and celebrates motherhood as especially rich creative territory. From the first flicker of life, a mother’s sense of time, space, reality and even her own body transforms. As a flexible medium, animation can construct realities and play with the elasticity of time and space. The works in this screening utilize intergenerational collaboration, evocative materiality, layered narratives, and the physical engagement of the creator with every frame.

This screening is programmed for the Nightingale Cinema by Sara Holwerda and Angela Lopez as part of Extended Practice, an artist-led collaborative project created to support the work and needs of artists who are mothers.

Featuring work by: Lindsay Arnold, Shira Avni, Lisa Barcy, Heather Freeman, Georgie Flood, Ariana Gerstein, Megan Hildebrandt, Anna Hrachovec, Emily Hubley, Faith Hubley, Debbie Lee, Marjorie Lemay, Jennifer Levonian, Maria Lorenzo, Alison O’Neill, Vanessa Sweet, Lynn Tomlinson, Selina Trepp and Karen Yasinsky

Total runtime: 75 minutes.

Nursing mothers are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.

Funding for this screening is supported in part by the DCASE Individual Artist Project grant.

The Art of Making it Work:
Reimagining Participation and Production as Artist Parents

SEE PHOTOS HERE

Sunday September 17th 2017, 11:00 am - 3:00pm
Chicago Family Picnic (3711 N Ravenswood Ave #105)
FREE childcare will be at Present Place, located in the same building.
Registration Fee: $10 --- seating is limited
Registration closesed Thursday September 14th at 12:00 Midnight


So, you’ve decided to ignore the advice that a serious artist must choose between raising a family and pursuing a successful career in the arts. Now what?

Join Christa Donner, artist and organizer of the creative platform Cultural ReProducers, for this idea-generating conversation and strategy-building workshop about “making it work” as a parent and artist. Participants will explore existing artist-led initiatives that address the challenges of artist-parenthood, and will reflect on their own experiences with balancing art-making and child-rearing. Through individual and collaborative activities, participants will identify key needs and desires of artists parents and will develop new models for a more sustainable artistic life in Chicago.

A networking lunch (vegan and gluten free options) is paid for by your $10 registration fee.

This project is made possible through the DCASE Individual Artist Project grant.


Christa Donner is an artist, curator, and organizer who investigates the human/animal organism and its metaphors. In 2012, when her daughter was one year old, Donner initiated Cultural ReProducers, an evolving creative platform for and about cultural workers who are also working it out as parents. Cultural ReProducers continues to foster visibility and support through events, publications, skill-sharing, and an extensive online resource for artists and institutions. Donner's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including projects for the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin, Germany), BankArt NYK (Yokohama, Japan); Chiaki Kamikawa Contemporary Art (Paphos, Cyprus); the Museum Bellerive (Zurich, Switzerland), the Centro Columbo Americano (Medellin, Colombia).