What does an artist need in order to create?
A quiet studio? Time alone? A space separate from the responsibilities of everyday life?
For many mothers, those conditions do not reflect reality. Creativity happens alongside caregiving, family life and the countless responsibilities that come with motherhood.
At the Museum of Motherhood, those intersections are not treated as barriers to creativity. They are worthy of exploration themselves.
That idea was at the center of A Room of Their Own: Motherhood, Space, and Creative Practice, an exhibition presented by the Museum of Motherhood in September 2026. Through the work of five contemporary mother-artists, the exhibition invited visitors to reconsider where creativity happens—and what becomes possible when motherhood and artistic identity are allowed to exist together.
Rethinking “A Room of One’s Own”
The exhibition takes inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and its questions about what women need in order to create.
But A Room of Their Own carries that conversation into a different context.
Rather than assuming meaningful creative work requires separation from domestic life, the exhibition considers what happens when the two overlap. Homes, shared spaces and caregiving environments can become places of artistic practice. Experiences associated with motherhood can become sources of ideas, subject matter and expression.
The result is a different way of thinking about creative space.
Instead of asking only whether mothers have a physical room of their own, the exhibition asks how mothers create within spaces shared with children, partners, families and communities—and how those experiences influence the art itself.
When Motherhood Becomes Part of the Creative Process
A Room of Their Own offered visitors a look inside the creative spaces of five contemporary mother-artists whose work is directly influenced by motherhood and the lived experience of mothering.
The exhibition explored questions that extend beyond art.
How can caregiving experiences shape creative practice? What happens when the boundaries between public and private life become less defined? What counts as a creative space? And what changes when motherhood itself is understood as a source of artistic inspiration?
These questions reflect the broader work of the Museum of Motherhood.
MoM’s mission is to redefine conversations about motherhood from the perspective of women. Through exhibitions and education, the organization explores reproductive identity, birth, parenting and maternal health while creating opportunities for people to engage with the many different experiences surrounding motherhood and caregiving.
Creating Space for Many Experiences of Motherhood
The Museum of Motherhood intentionally uses the term “m/others” to recognize that caregiving and reproductive experiences do not fit within a single definition.
Its community includes people with many different relationships to motherhood and caregiving—from mothers with one child or several children to extended family caregivers, people who are childless by choice and individuals navigating infertility.
That broad perspective carries into the museum’s programming.
Through visual, literary, educational, academic and performing arts experiences, MoM creates opportunities to explore identity, experience and community. Its rotating exhibitions also provide space for local artists, particularly women, BIPOC artists and emerging creatives, to share work examining motherhood, caregiving and identity.
The museum describes itself as a living institution—one shaped by its members, volunteers and community partners.
That means the conversation is never meant to be finished.
As experiences change, the museum has room to change with them.
Art as a Place for Connection
An exhibition can begin with artwork, but its impact does not necessarily end there.
By bringing experiences that are often considered private into a shared cultural space, the Museum of Motherhood creates opportunities for people to see their own experiences reflected—or encounter experiences different from their own.
Its work extends beyond exhibitions through events and workshops that combine art, storytelling and wellness practices to encourage social connection and emotional well-being.
That approach makes a museum more than a place to observe.
It becomes a place to gather, question, learn and connect.
And for a subject as universal yet deeply personal as caregiving, creating that space matters.
Sustaining a Place for These Stories
The Museum of Motherhood’s relationship with Pinellas Community Foundation extends beyond a single exhibition.
The organization maintains the Museum of Motherhood Endowment Fund at PCF, creating a way for donors to invest in its long-term future. PCF’s Giving Hub identifies the fund as an endowment, providing another avenue for those who want to help sustain the museum and its work over time.
PCF has also previously supported MoM’s community programming, including its MaMaPaLooZa Festival.
Together, those connections reflect two sides of supporting a nonprofit: helping meaningful work reach the community today while building resources that can help sustain the organization into the future.
For a museum dedicated to preserving, examining and expanding the stories we tell about motherhood, that long-term perspective is especially fitting.
Looking Ahead to 2027
The conversation will continue.
The Museum of Motherhood is currently developing its 2027 calendar, which is expected to include three signature events: its Academic and Arts Conference, MaMaPaLooZa and Maternal Health Conference.
The museum is also planning private tours and special exhibitions in partnership with local organizations.
Each offers another way for people to encounter the museum’s work—and another opportunity to make experiences surrounding motherhood, caregiving and identity part of a broader community conversation.
Making Room for What Matters
A Room of Their Own began with a question about space.
But the exhibition ultimately asks something larger.
What happens when we make room—not only physical room, but cultural room—for experiences that have historically received less attention?
For the Museum of Motherhood, creating that room means inviting artists to explore motherhood without separating it from their creative identities. It means bringing personal experiences into public conversation. And it means building a place where different experiences of caregiving, family and identity can be examined through art, education and community.
The answer may not always be a room of one’s own.
Sometimes, it is a room shared with others.
And sometimes, making space for those overlapping experiences is where the most interesting conversations begin.
Learn more about the Museum of Motherhood:
Visit the Museum of Motherhood
Support its long-term work:
The Museum of Motherhood Endowment Fund is available through Pinellas Community Foundation’s Giving Hub.
