"The Mother Artist" Book Launch Party

“The only reason you’ll want to put down Ricketts’s lyrical tour de force is to make more art.”—Sarah Sentilles, author of Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours

Join us for an evening celebrating the launch of The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitaiton, and Creativity as well as the many luminous contributions that mother artists make to the Philadelphia arts community on the 3rd floor of the Paradigm Arts Building. Light food and beverages will be served, and the author will give a reading at 6:00 p.m.

The Mother Artist, by Philadelphia writer Catherine Ricketts, weaves memoir with studies of the art and lives of modern and contemporary women artists who had children. Highlighting 20th-century artists like Ruth Asawa, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alice Neel, as well as contemporary Philadelphia artists like Alison Dilworth, Aimee Koran, Becky Suss, and Mickayel Thurin, The Mother Artist debunks the myth that to be an artist you must give up a family life, demonstrates the very real challenges facing women who aspire to rise in their disciplines, and explores the humanizing vision that caregivers bring to the making and shaping of culture. Rachel Yoder (Nightbitch) calls this book “brilliant and open-hearted,” while James KA Smith (editor, Image) writes, “Read this if you're a mother and an artist, to be sure; but read this, too, if you're human and hope for a different world.”

Admisssion includes a copy of Catherine Ricketts’s book The Mother Artist

Kids under 12 are free to attend. Dress code is festive.

About Catherine Ricketts

Catherine Ricketts writes about the arts, grief, joy, and spirituality. She studied writing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University. Her essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review Online, The Christian Century, Image, The Millions, Paste, and the Ploughshares blog, among other publications. While writing, she has supported the work of other working artists as a live arts presenter, having held jobs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia's FringeArts, and the public radio station WXPN. Ricketts lives with her family near Philadelphia. Find her on Instagram at @bycatherinericketts or online at www.catherinedanaricketts.com.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Paradigm Gallery + Studio, 12 North 3rd Street, Philadelphia, United States