People
Juliana Rowen Barton, PhD is a curator and cultural organizer based in Providence, RI. Through her research and projects, she explores the confluence of race, gender, and design and invests in community-engaged creative practices. Currently, she is the Director of the Center for the Arts at Northeastern University, where she facilitates interdisciplinary arts programming and oversees the University's contemporary art space, Gallery 360. Throughout her career, Barton has worked on exhibitions and programs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, ArkDes, Center for Craft, Fralin Museum of Art, Center for Architecture, and Museum of Modern Art, among others. She comes from a family of architects and spends her free time in the pottery studio and the kitchen. See more here.
Originally hailing from Scotland, Michelle Millar Fisher, PhD writes, lectures, and creates exhibitions about the intersections of people, power, and the material world. She's currently a museum curator in Boston and has worked in cultural institutions for two decades including at MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has a particular interest in design, architecture, and craft, ranging from material-specific making and craft pedagogy to the craft of care work. See more here.
Zoë Greggs is a Black, lesbian, nonbinary Philadelphia-based artist and non-profit administrator who serves as the Development Manager at BlackStar Projects. Before joining BlackStar, they held positions at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia’s African American Museum and the Magic Gardens. In 2024, Greggs received an Art and Change Grant award from the Leeway Foundation. Greggs was also the Curatorial Assistant for Designing Motherhood, where they brought their expertise in community engagement, project management, and art history. In addition, they co-led the Designing Motherhood Narrative Portrait project, which utilized the power of storytelling to advocate for a future where caregivers can birth with dignity and raise babies who are healthy, growing, and thriving. Through their passion for Black feminism, critical race theory, and systems change, they strive to create processes and joyful relationships that uproot systemic harm and shift mainstream narratives about our shared history and trajectory.
Amber Winick's professional practice centers around design, birth, and child development. As a writer, an independent design historian, coach and group facilitator, she is committed to cultivating slower, more conscious communities of care. Amber works hand-in-hand with parents, young children and designers alike to facilitate ease, confidence and a greater sense of purpose and pleasure. She’s also a mother of three, a New Yorker living in London, co-housing enthusiast, crafts novice, avid thrifter and nature lover. See more here.
Advisors
The Designing Motherhood advisory team was active during the initial exhibition phase in Philadelphia from 2019-2021 and comprised of Maternity Care Coalition staff with deep on-the-ground expertise in culturally-appropriate care work, maternal health, policy advocacy, and early childhood development. They were reproductive justice advocate, birth worker and program associate for MCC’s community doula and breastfeeding programs, Tekara Gainey; early childhood education expert and author Sabrina Taylor; and doula and lactation specialist Porsche M. Holland; associate director of policy and urban planner Gabriella Nelson (Gabriella went on to become part of the curatorial team); and culturally appropriate care specialist Adrianne Edwards. After Philadelphia, each venue has convened its own local advisory group to adapt the exhibition for their specific context.
Collaborators
Maternity Care Coalition
Since 1980, Maternity Care Coalition has assisted families throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, focusing particularly on neighborhoods with high rates of poverty, infant mortality, health disparities, and changing immigration patterns. They know a family’s needs change as they go through the pregnancy and their child’s first years and they offer a range of services and programs for every step along the way. MCC envisions an equitable future where all families are healthy and connected, with all children thriving and ready to learn.
Neighborhood Birth Center
In Boston, the project’s thought partner was the Neighborhood Birth Center (NBC) which will open as Boston’s first independent and freestanding birth center in 2024 with the vision of improving birth experiences and outcomes, across communities, for generations.
Center for Architecture and Design
The Center provides Philadelphia with educational programs, exhibitions, and a public forum to explore architecture, urban planning, and design, allowing visitors the opportunity to understand how these disciplines affect us all in our daily lives.
Mütter Museum
America’s finest museum of medical history, the Mütter Museum helps the public understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body and to appreciate the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Orkan Telhan and Penn Design
Orkan Telhan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher. Telhan is Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Emerging Design Practices in the School of Design at The University of Pennsylvania.
Romy St. Hilaire
Romy St. Hilaire is an arts and non profit consultant who previously served as the STEAM Team Program Coordinator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Romy is the founder of Art in the Antilles which supports Afro-Caribbean communities to equitably navigate the creative economy. She is currently a Masters candidate in the City Planning program at MIT focusing on International Development.