Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births
Mütter Museum, Philadelphia. May 8, 2021 – April 30, 2022
Center for Architecture and Design, Philadelphia. Sept 10 – Nov 14, 2021
Mass Art Museum (MAAM), Boston. June 11 – December 18, 2022
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center, Seattle. February 14 - December 30, 2023
ArkDes, The Swedish National Museum of Architecture and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. September 27, 2024 – August 31, 2025
Fifth and sixth venues to be announced in late 2024
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Mütter Museum, Philadelphia. May 8, 2021 – April 30, 2022
Center for Architecture and Design, Philadelphia. Sept 10 – Nov 14, 2021
Mass Art Museum (MAAM), Boston. June 11 – December 18, 2022
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center, Seattle. February 14 - December 30, 2023
ArkDes, The Swedish National Museum of Architecture and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. September 27, 2024 – August 31, 2025
Fifth and sixth venues to be announced in late 2024
Selected press:
The New York Times, Menstrual Cups in Museums? It’s Time.
The Guardian, Designing Motherhood: project puts objects shaped by maternity in focus
Vogue, A New Exhibition in Philadelphia Examines the Hidden Histories of Reproduction
The Washington Post, The Lily, Forceps, breast pumps, IUDs: This exhibit puts motherhood on display
Smithsonian Magazine, Designing Motherhood
Fashion Studies Journal, book review
Designing Motherhood is an exhibition about how design has influenced human reproduction over the past 150 years to facilitate or prevent our arrival into the world.
The exhibition showcases nearly 300 items, both historical and contemporary, involved in the arc of human reproduction, ranging from menstrual cups, breast pumps, and baby monitors to medical tools and maternity clothing. It explores objects and processes through a variety of fields: art, photography, product design, posters, advertisements, fashion, and architecture, with a selection emerging from various cultural and geographical backgrounds.
While being born is a universal human experience, the designs that shape it are not. Designing Motherhood invites you to consider why and how we have developed designs to facilitate reproductive health, and to ponder the political, economic, and social implications of how we medicalize reproduction.
The New York Times, Menstrual Cups in Museums? It’s Time.
The Guardian, Designing Motherhood: project puts objects shaped by maternity in focus
Vogue, A New Exhibition in Philadelphia Examines the Hidden Histories of Reproduction
The Washington Post, The Lily, Forceps, breast pumps, IUDs: This exhibit puts motherhood on display
Smithsonian Magazine, Designing Motherhood
Fashion Studies Journal, book review
Designing Motherhood is an exhibition about how design has influenced human reproduction over the past 150 years to facilitate or prevent our arrival into the world.
The exhibition showcases nearly 300 items, both historical and contemporary, involved in the arc of human reproduction, ranging from menstrual cups, breast pumps, and baby monitors to medical tools and maternity clothing. It explores objects and processes through a variety of fields: art, photography, product design, posters, advertisements, fashion, and architecture, with a selection emerging from various cultural and geographical backgrounds.
While being born is a universal human experience, the designs that shape it are not. Designing Motherhood invites you to consider why and how we have developed designs to facilitate reproductive health, and to ponder the political, economic, and social implications of how we medicalize reproduction.