March 2024-Current-Ongoing
At the Table with MA: R is a multifaceted creative immersion running in several iterations. The goals of the project are to create a platform that would help facilitate meaningful connections–whether new or rekindled–and strengthen community amongst artists through gathering, sharing meals, generating conversations, collective creative production & exhibitions. We build on our existing traditions to cultivate new ones. We are connecting our community to the larger Chicago & beyond creative networks.
Current Iteration. August 18-31, 2024 Exhibition: featuring new and original art pieces generated from the MA: R Simultaneous Community Gatherings in March, 2024. The exhibition is taking place on the site of Venezia Contemporanea Artist Residency, in Venice, Italy, hosted by MA: R artist and current Venezia Contemporanea Artist in Residence Patricia Rain Gianneschi and curated by MA: R artist Galina Shevchenko.
At the Table with MA: R Exhibition Participating Artists : Jamie Nakagawa Boley, Marjorie Boyles, Elisabeth Dzuricsko, Margarita Fainshtein, Patricia Rain Gianneschi, Beth Iska, Monica Kelsie, Jenny Keyser, Susan Krueger-Barber, Jessica Mueller, Kris Schaedig, Galina Shevchenko, Joanne Tepper Saffren, Valerie Xanos
At the Table with MA: R Simultaneous, Experimental Community Dinners took place on Pie Day, March 14th, 2024, simultaneously across Chicago and North America, including Southern Florida (St.Augustine., FL), Provo, UT and Northern Canada (Halifax, Nova Scotia). The Dinner Series have centered on the following topics: Past: Passing on generational knowledge; Present: Nurturing in the Now; Future: Dreaming of Alternative Futures
This project focuses on nurturing community and building a culture of fellowship within The MA:R collective and around the wider circle of female identifying artists that are also parents. The dinners have creative projects embedded within them. Through this practice we are unpacking, and probing our positionality on connecting to the past; propose ways to productively sustain as artist mothers; and explore various possibilities for fruitful inspiring futures. We have ignited new relationships, new conversations, curatorial charges for future shows, and have allowed for our the tradition to spread exponentially across the other MotherArt: Revisited hubs across the US and internationally.
At the Table with MA: R represents an experimental shift for our collective as we work towards changing our dynamic in a post COVID era; focusing on how we relate to one another and how we share our practice–opening it up to the greater community in more unconventional ways through the nurturing dinner experience.
Collective Work 2018-2023
