WGC is Proud to Support Dear Mama: A Black Maternal Health Art Exhibition

​The Dear Mama: A Black Maternal Health Art Exhibition is an artistic representation of pregnancy and motherhood through the eyes of emerging females of color. The aim of this exhibition is to create for the viewer emotional resonance as well as an understanding of health disparities impacting women of color.

Through visual 2D and 3D art, Dear Mama is designed to bring attention to issues impacting Black motherhood including alarmingly high rates of maternal and infant mortality and pregnancy-related complications. This is a group thematic exhibition to display work in a variety of mediums with representation of pregnancy and motherhood as seen through the eyes of emerging artists of African descent. The exhibition will be brought to life with a reception to include poetry and essay readings, songs and performance art.

• The Exhibit runs April 10-30, 2020 at the Columbia Art Center
• The Opening Reception is April 18, 2020 2-4pm
• This event is sponsored by The Women's Giving Circle of Howard County

Please Join the WGC at the Opening Reception on Saturday, April 18, 2:00 - 4:00 pm. You can RSVP here.

About the Organizers:

The exhibition is a passion project launched by two former law school classmates and local artists, Kamilah House and Faye McCray. The women are mothers whose own struggles led them to create this exhibition to honor women who have lost their lives or bear deep scars due to pregnancy-related complications.

The aim of this exhibition is to create for the viewer emotional resonance as well as understanding of the health disparities impacting women of color. Such disparities include:

• The United States has the worst maternal death rates in the developed world, at 18 death per 100,000 live births.
• The maternal mortality rate is alarmingly higher among black women, at 40 deaths per 100,000 live births.
• Black women are nearly four times more like than white women – and more than twice as likely as women on other races – to die from preventable, pregnancy-related complications.
• Black women also experience higher rates of maternal complications and infant mortality.
• They are twice as likely to lose an infant to premature death, and these disparities have not improved for more than 30 years.

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