artist cohort
The Hammerspace Artist Cohort is a small, intentionally structured artist mentorship program for mother artists and artist-parents seeking sustained engagement with their creative practice, professional development, and artistic community.
The art world has well-established pathways for artists without children, without caregiving responsibilities, without interrupted studio time. We are investigating a new path.
Caregiving produces forms of attention, perception, endurance, and knowledge the broader field has not yet reckoned with. These are forms that deserve serious artistic consideration and institutional investment. Mother artists are doing some of the most significant cultural and artistic experimentation of this moment, largely without support or recognition.
Major studies now show that “Around 76% of women aged 35–54 report facing structural barriers. The highest attrition risk (50.6%) is among women aged 35–44—the exact cohort needed for leadership roles. The lack of workplace flexibility and the high cost of living are increasingly cited as making arts jobs "incompatible" with caregiving and family responsibilities”
This massive drain has a profound effect on culture and is completely preventable. Because what mothers need is the support of a community. One that can hold her rhythms, contradictions, her constraints, fears and her ever present well of inspiration that lives with the humans she is raising.