Panel Discussion: Working Artists / Working Mothers
- Talks +More
Co-presented with Balancing Act
Thursday July 31 | 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Artists can be mothers. More often, they are artists who become mothers; however, they may have become mothers before becoming artists. They often seek ways to balance their parenthood and their profession. For some, their artwork may gravitate toward the female experience of motherhood and family, while for others, their artwork may be about unrelated themes.
This program will begin with a brief Curator's Walkthrough by Barbara Astman of the Elinor Carucci and Hannah Altman exhibition with special focus on Carucci's Midlife that reveals the artist as daughter, wife and mother. Then, participate in a lively panel discussion moderated by Susie Burpee, including three working artists/working mothers:
- Barbara Astman – artist, Professor Emerita at OCAD U, curator of Elinor Carucci | Hannah Altman
- Sarah Cullen – artist and founder/coordinator of MOTHRA (in collaboration with others)
- Shira Leuchter – actor, artist and performance creator
- Susie Burpee (moderator) – Executive Director of Balancing Act
The panel will include questions from the audience.
Traversing both dance and theatre, Susie Burpee is a multi-faceted artist and award-winning performer based in Toronto/Tkaronto. Known for her character-driven choreographic works, Susie has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance, and she is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance.
Susie holds an MA in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies from the The University of Toronto and teaches regularly in post-secondary dance programs. She is now Executive Director of Balancing Act, a national initiative to support parents and caregivers in the performing arts. Susie is a mother, and her work in the arts is wholly informed by maternity and care-centred practices.
Barbara Astman belongs to a visionary group of artists who have continued to radicalize visual culture since the early 1970s by defining new ways of seeing. Over four decades, she has explored a wide range of photo-based media and produced work which has received national and international recognition. She is represented in important public, corporate and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Deutche Bank, New York; and, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Her artist’s archives are held in the E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, AGO.
As a Professor Emerita at OCAD University, Toronto, Astman has been instrumental in inspiring generations of emerging artists. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including the AGO Board of Trustees (2009- 2013) and was President of the Board of Directors at Prefix (ICA) Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto. Astman is represented by Corkin Gallery, Toronto and Paul Kyle Gallery, Vancouver.
Sarah Cullen is a visual artist who headed down the path of walking as a method for artwork, research, and alternative approaches to landscape. After the birth of her first child, she came to a fork in the road and took the diversion that eventually led to the creation of MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project, which came to be in 2018 in Toronto. This diversion has since made its way back to the original path with many other forays along the way.
MOTHRA started as a grassroots project which has grown because of high interest and demand. MOTHRA is interested in institutional critique, among other things, and has specifically focused on the artist residency as a site to welcome and admit to the important social relationships in our lives. MOTHRA currently runs out of Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on Toronto Island.
Shira Leuchter makes performances that invite audiences to imagine new ways for us to be together. She’s interested in what happens to a performance if we replace traditional dramatic conflict with collaboration, with an invitation to make something together.
Shira’s participatory performance The Haunting premiered as part of Tarragon Theatre’s Greenhouse Festival, where it enjoyed a sold out run. Her live art performance Lost Together toured to OFFTA, In the Soil Festival, Nightwood Theatre, and Progress Festival, and won the SummerWorks Festival Production Prize. She’s received commissions from institutions like Harbourfront Centre and the Gardiner Museum. She is Co-editor of an upcoming issue of Canadian Theatre Review on the topic of care practices. Shira is an Associate Artist with Theatre Direct and sits on the Steering Committee for Balancing Act Canada.
Shira is a PhD Student in York University’s Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies program. She holds an MA from York University and is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting program and the University of Guelph. Shira lives in Tkaronto, where she is raising two very cool and funny children.
