^{Procreate Project}

Procreate Project is a pioneering arts organisation driven by an ethos that strives for innovation and sociocultural impact.

The main aim is to support the professional development of contemporary artists who are also mothers, working across disciplines.

“Procreate Project started as an attempt to promote the manifest and many beneficial changes that accompany pregnancy. I wanted to reach and influence the public about an event whose ancillary benefits are largely ignored.  

The idea was inspired by my own experience of pregnancy and the shocking reality of lack of support and representation that force women and primary care givers outside of the creative industries.

In 2013 I had the vision to create a new model of arts organisation that would change the way we make, support and consume art, embracing the reality and needs of many people during one of the most fundamental epochs in people’s private and professional lives.”

^{Mother House Studios}

The First And Only Artists Studio With Integrated Childcare, Where Children Are Welcome Into The Workspace

The model is a creative yet radical solution to a proven lack of viable and affordable provision that sufficiently supports the professional development and well-being of artists during pregnancy and motherhood.

After two pilot projects in London at IKLECTIK Art Lab, we are in the process of opening the first permanent centre in London, with the intention to create a model that is replicable internationally. 

The project has received the support by the Mayor of London, Lewisham Council and Esmée Fairbairn, among other 200 backers via a crowdfunding campaing on Spacehive. 

“ I have conceived the model in response to the many conversations I had with international artists, urging to have a dedicated, affordable space where to keep making work without having to comprimise on their practice as mothers” 

^{Oxytocin Mothering the World}

Royal College of Art 2017 - King’s College London Guy’s Campus, 2019 - Science Gallery London and Middlesex University 2023. 

Oxytocin is an interdisciplinary event about mothers and carers that uniquely combines a bold programme of commissioned performances and live art with discussion panels and workshops.

It creates a platform for critical art practices, intersectional feminism and maternity services.

Oxytocin Mothering the World 2019 and 2023 was supported by Arts Council England. 

“While looking at art surrounding the domestic and public realities of mother artists from the 60s to our days, I came across images that were talking about scars, depression, death, loneliness and hate.

We live in a society where mothers are asked to go back home, pull themselves together and care emotionally and physically for a child, sometimes in brutal conditions.

We define “health” broadly, as does the World Health Organization (WHO), as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

After working closely with mothers and birthing people, I came to understand there was a need to create a dialogue between people who experince birth, artists, academics and other professionals midwives and birth workers, who are not necessarily part of the art world, however, are directly part of the maternal experience and its outcome.”

^{Mother Art Prize}

International open call for self-identifying women and non-binary visual artists with caring responsibilities. [2017, 2018, 2020,2023] 

Under the Procreate Project umbrella, this platform exists to promote and support artists who are mothers/parents as well as drive the attention of the wider public to a broad-spectrum of themes that would otherwise be overlooked and devalued.

The prize received the support and collaboration of Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Modern, Frieze London, AWITA, Zabludowicz Collection, Create London, Elephant magazine, Mimosa House, Richard Saltoun.

“ This has been an important platform to initiate and nurture partnerships with established galleries and art Instistutions, bringing change with our contents and new operational models to different realities and audiences, while creating visibility and recognition for the category of artists we represent” 

^Foetus

Movement and New technologies, Richmix London 2015, Leyden Gallery, 2018

Foetus, is an un-seen and highly innovative concept of new media ‪art‬ where humanity and technologies are interlaced through the wonder of ‪‎pregnancy.

The use of technological devises positioned on the performer’s body, as Electrocardiogram and Fetal ultrasound Doppler, generate real-time graphics and sounds and control playback properties and create a set of elements in continuous progression that influence and overlap one another creating an experimental audiovisual performance.

“ The impulses I have receiveid from my pregnant mind and body generated the need to move through the experience and create for others a different representation of pregnancy and its physical outspring.”

^{Is There a Future?}

Ugly Duck 2019 - An an evening of performance art and installation organised and curated by Cécile Embleton and Dyana Gravina in collaboration with Art Earth Tech, Procreate Project and Ugly Duck.

Featuring works by international artists and activists, the event opened a safe space for discussion on our future, the ecological landscape and our evolving relationships with the idea of family within it.

© Dyana Gravina 2024 all rights reserved

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