In conjunction with our current exhibition, Designing Motherhood, explore the unseen and underappreciated infrastructures of care that support families and communities, including caregiving roles and resources. HCCC Curator + Exhibitions Director Sarah Darro will be in conversation with exhibiting artists Alicia Eggert and Martha Poggioli, attorneys Regá Richardson Waggett and Gordon Waggett, Taeshaun Walters with Birthmark Doula Collective, and Fran Wang with Yona Care.
This event will take place in person and on our Facebook Live page.
Alicia Eggert (American, b. 1981) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice gives material form to language and time across a variety of mediums. Eggert has exhibited at notable institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, Triennale Design Museum in Milan, Everson Museum of Art, and Telfair Museums. Recent solo exhibitions include Galeria Fernando Santos (Porto, Portugal), University of Texas, San Antonio, and Art Museum of Southeast Texas (Beaumont, TX). Her work is held in collections including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis, New Holland Island (St. Petersburg, Russia), Light Art Collection, and significant private collections. The artist has received a TED Fellowship, Long Now Foundation Fellowship, Hopper Prize, S&R Foundation Washington Award, Harpo Foundation Direct Artist Grant, Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Microgrant, and Maine Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. Eggert is Associate Professor of Studio Art at the University of North Texas.
Martha Poggioli is an Australian artist based in the United States. Poggioli’s work takes from legacies of design, industry, medicine and technology to create sculpture, new media and installation. Her recent work has investigated the histories and form of reproductive technology as well as research & development in the minimally invasive surgical space. Poggioli has exhibited at; John Michael Kohler Arts Centre (Sheboygan US), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Dresden DE), MassArt Art Museum (Boston US), Australian Tapestry Workshop (Melbourne AU), Mütter Museum (Philadelphia US), Julius Caesar (Chicago US), and SPACES (Cleveland US). Residency/Programs include; Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Kohler Arts/Industry Residency, LeRoy Neiman Foundation Ox-Bow Fellowship, Australian Tapestry Workshop & NEWINC. Poggioli holds a BFA (Fashion Design) from Queensland University of Technology and an MFA (Designed Objects) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Colorado College, CO (2023-2025).
Regá Richardson Waggett and Gordon Waggett are attorneys who played a key role in the passage of Texas’s first breastfeeding law, Section 165 of the Texas Health Code, in 1995, making Texas the fourth state in the country to enact such legislation. Their advocacy was sparked when a nursing mother was asked to leave a Houston museum, leading Regá to
organize a public rally that gained significant media attention and garnered support from then-Texas State Representative Debra Danburg and then-Senator John Whitmire (now Houston’s Mayor). This momentum led to the drafting and successful passage of HB 359 within one legislative session. Regá and Gordon co-authored a pivotal Law Review article in the Maryland Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues and an Op-Ed piece in the Houston Chronicle, both of which laid the groundwork for the legislation. Their efforts have been widely recognized, with Gordon serving on UNICEF’s Advisory Panel for the U.S. Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and their work being acknowledged by the Texas Department of Health. The Waggetts remain influential voices in the ongoing fight for breastfeeding rights nationwide, remaining committed to advocating for women, children, and families.
Taeshaun Walters, MPH, CLC, CHT, Doula is a member of the Birthmark Doula Collective, a New Orleans-based organization that provides doula services and education for pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. Birthmark Doula Collective is an official partner of the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center, stewarding their infant feeding drop-in clinics, virtual, in-clinic, and in-home lactation services, support groups, and education programs. They lead the emergency infant feeding program called Infant Readyᵀᴹ, which was developed to improve infant, maternal, and community health outcomes during and after disasters.
Fran Wang is co-founder and CEO of Yona Care, an early-stage startup redesigning the vaginal speculum that improves reproductive care outcomes by addressing provider painpoints and considering patient experience. Yona’s work is informed through the process of design research, including patients, providers, and the many people involved within the systems of care. Beyond the speculum, Yona strives to change reproductive care for the better, one vagina at a time.
Image credits:
Top right: Aaron McIntosh, Transitional Object #1 (Detail), 2016-2017. Family cloth, vintage cottons, polyester double-knit, cotton batting, thread. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Participating artist images: All courtesy of the artists.
.
