“Aesthetics of Care is a collection of artwork by local, national, and international artists whose practices explore caregiving. The exhibition spans a wide range of media, including photography, video, painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, and interdisciplinary works, reflecting the many ways care is experienced, embodied, and expressed across cultures and communities.

This exhibition originated from a call for art issued in 2025 for the Three Rivers Arts Festival, where Anthropology of Motherhood (AoM) first began in 2016. For nine consecutive years, AoM presented exhibitions during the festival, creating space for nursing mothers, artists, and caregivers, to share space and examine caregiving as cultural labor and creative practice.

In 2026, Anthropology of Motherhood celebrates its tenth anniversary. While the separation from the Three Rivers Arts Festival marked the close of an important chapter, it also opened the door to new collaborations and possibilities. This year, AoM is proud to partner with Radiant Hall and present Aesthetics of Care at its newest downtown location. Together, we have expanded our commitment to caregiving-centered arts programming through initiatives such as Playdate, a groundbreaking residency model that centers caregivers and care receivers as creative collaborators. We are also honored to welcome Jen Haefeli as guest curator for this anniversary exhibition.

The works gathered here demonstrate that care is not simply a private act but a cultural force. They reveal caregiving as skilled labor, artistic material, political action, and collective responsibility. At a moment marked by social division, economic uncertainty, attacks on vulnerable communities, and growing forms of oppression, these artists remind us that care remains one of the most powerful tools for survival and transformation.

Anthropology of Motherhood was founded on the belief that caregiving deserves recognition, visibility, and celebration. Ten years later, that belief remains unchanged. Through exhibitions, residencies, performances, conversations, and community partnerships, AoM continues to elevate the culture of care as a vital artistic practice and social value.

As we mark this milestone, we honor those who have sustained this work over the past decade while looking toward a future built on new relationships, expanded accessibility, and shared responsibility. More than ever, we need one another. More than ever, we need care.

This exhibition is both a celebration and a call to action: to recognize caregiving as creative labor, to value those who perform it, and to imagine a culture in which care is no longer invisible but proudly acknowledged as essential, not peripheral, to our collective well-being. ”