Maria De Victoria on Artists and Mothers
In an economy compulsively obsessed with productivity, becoming a mother can hurt your career. This phenomenon is well documented: studies show that 24% of mothers exit the labor market within one year of motherhood, and less than half will return to work over the following decade. While many would like to return to the workplace, new mothers face a litany of patriarchal barriers on their path to a balanced and fulfilling career. They are given lower pay for positions for which they are overqualified; they are stereotyped as “too soft” for leadership while working long hours and often absorbing the brunt of their household’s domestic labor.
Maria De Victoria, co-founder of Artists and Mothers, image courtesy of Artists and Mothers.
New York City's artist-mothers face compounded hardships which make navigating these roadblocks an even greater—and at times insurmountable—challenge. They work in an industry where pay and opportunities are unpredictable, and live in a city whose exorbitant cost of living makes headlines.
Having faced these challenges herself, Peruvian artist Maria De Victoria was determined to blaze a path for others when she co-founded Artists and Mothers alongside art advisor and curator Julia Trotta. The organization supports emerging and mid-career artists who identify as mothers with a grant for nine months of childcare, to be put towards the provider of their choice. The grant is open to mothers with children under the age of three.
Artists and Mothers’ first grantee, Carissa Rodriguez, was nominated to receive an award of $25,000 in June 2024. Recipients of the organization’s first open call are set to be announced in June 2025. De Victoria spoke with IMPULSE to share the origin story behind this groundbreaking non-profit.
Katya Borkov: People are really starting to have conversations about the impact of being a parent on your ability to succeed as an artist. It’s exciting to know that your organization is facing these challenges head-on.
Maria De Victoria: It was really important, especially as I had my son. He’s seven and a half now, but I really started to see the need when he was about a year old. I’m queer, and my wife carried him, but I knew I wanted to have that time to do the childcare.
I come very organically to the art world, almost as a necessity. Being an immigrant myself, I wasn’t really exposed to the arts until later in life, and I really saw that that’s where I belong. As I started to focus on my career, I also wanted to have a kid and to have the time to be with my kid.
I started to do performance art. I always thought: I don’t need a studio. I kept making these excuses for myself. But as the reality hit of what it really takes to be with a child and be present for the child, I started thinking of others. What about the artists who actually need to keep a studio because they need the process, time, and space to continue their practice? How do you justify that when your career is about to take off, or you’re working on shows, but you still can’t really sustain [yourself] from your work?
I started to dig into what’s out there for parents. More and more years went by, and I kept seeing there really weren’t grants for childcare, and how the need is really crucial in those early years of parenthood.
So we decided to take a feminist act and make it ourselves and say, hey, can we redirect the conversation towards this topic, and could people really support this? We’re all volunteers giving our time because we believe in this, and every dollar you give goes out to an artist.
Carissa Rodriguez, recipient of Artists and Mothers’ inaugural grant in June 2024, image courtesy of Artists and Mothers.
KB: Your personal connection to the mission really comes through in the work that you’re doing, and it’s admirable that the whole organization is volunteer-run. Does your funding mostly come from individual donations?
MDV: We’re fairly new. We launched in April 2024 and started to fundraise with zero dollars, which is unusual for the nonprofit world. Everybody starts with an endowment, or somebody in the organization who’s wealthy or is supporting the mission [financially].
The goal was always to make sure the grant was a big, sustained amount of money. We knew that in order to make an impact in an artist’s life, it needed to be a large grant so they could see themselves ahead for the year and be able to plan for childcare, whether that’s a nanny, daycare, or even preschool. We’ve always said that even if we can help just one artist for a year, that’s something. We’re hoping more people can jump in and say, “We believe in this,” but it started by saying, “As much as our group can do, we can give out.”
Everything has been coming through private foundations and small donations. That has been really wonderful to see because we've raised almost one full grant from small donations. Every time you get that twenty-five or fifty dollars, it feels very good because it does add up.
At first, our board nominated two candidates, and from there, we chose a recipient. Now, we’ve opened the grant to the public.
We were lucky to add a third grant to this cycle thanks to the Crossed Purposes Foundation. While we were initially going to offer two grants in 2025, Crossed Purposes announced they would be giving us the exact amount we needed [to support a third grantee].
Each grant is $25,000 for a school year of childcare. And we hope that the impact that it will create on the artists’ lives will be felt from far away, and that others see the example we're trying to set, and they will support us and we can help more people along the way.
KB: That’s amazing, congratulations.
MDV: Thank you. We're supporting women's work. The work can continue to exist, continue to be seen, and there's a ripple effect. It’s not just focusing on the artists and their livelihood, but also the effect that it has on the children, and it continues to create a good society moving forward and happy people.
Film still from Imitation of Life (04/09/24), by Artists and Mothers’ inaugural grantee, Carissa Rodriguez. 2024 4K Video, Farbe, Ton / 4K video, color, sound; LED Screen 22:33 min. Courtesy the artist and Artists and Mothers.
KB: It’s been a year since you gave your first grant. It must be wonderful to see how massive the impact has been.
MDV: Yes, there are so many ways of seeing the outcome within a year. The child's life is affected by putting much-needed support in the life and art-making of their caretakers. There's value in giving them the time and space they need without having that financial strain.
That was one of the most difficult things for me, as somebody who was doing full-time childcare and could not really sustain myself from my art. I had to take on jobs and focus on my paying jobs and childcare. That meant that any time to process my creative work or even to think creatively was consumed, and I couldn't continue. I had to put a hold on artmaking, and getting back was difficult. We want to bridge that gap and make it faster for people to be able to continue that work. Even if you're not able to make as much work that year, at least you're going to have the time and space to continue your practice and not feel like you're completely stepping out. You have these large gaps on women's CVs, and it was because sometimes people just don't get back on the way, they suspend [their work] and then they go on and do something else. This is what we're trying to [address].
KB: The organization focuses on supporting mothers with newborn children, right?
MDV: Yes. Obviously we know that the need is everywhere, but we’re focusing on that age group because post pre-K, there is school for all in the city. Sadly, I am aware that not all neighborhoods have pre-K, and some schools have space while others don't.
We're starting with only New York City-based artists because we're from New York City, and living here is expensive. As an artist, you come here with all your hopes and dreams, and you need the city to continue to feed that in you, right? For me, I couldn't think of living [anywhere else]. Sometimes when I'm by myself, I walk around the city, and I feel so alive and so inspired. How important is that feeling!
But it's so expensive to live here. We're well aware, so we wanted to start with what we know. We have to start small to be able to then help people in other cities or states.
KB: Right when your child is born is also a time that can define how the rest of your career goes. As you were touching on, some people may not ever fully return to what they were doing before. So even if you're not creating much work, keeping that momentum is so crucial.
MDV: Definitely. More and more, people wait longer to have children. Maybe an artist is at the height of their career, but they cannot wait any longer [to become a parent]. This is the specific kind of artist some of us are currently trying to help support—we want to help them continue to stay on track.
KB: Running an all-volunteer organization is no easy feat. It’s a lot of work on top of everything else that you're doing, and it's amazing to learn how it comes from your experience and the need that you yourself recognize. Really powerful.
MDV: Thank you so much. Yes, and I think it's really a testament to community. My co-founder, Julia Trotta, brought an amazing board full of working artists, gallerists, and public relations professionals from the art world. When you bring people together who want to put something positive out and create change, you can really do this with nothing. I hope that we inspire others to say, “Hey, taking matters into your own hands is important. Get out there.”
Even if you march by yourself, somebody else will join, and eventually you will create a movement. That's really important to keep at the forefront of your thinking when you're doing things: good ideas start from one person, and then they evolve. We're hoping that we can continue helping more artists, and that we can keep growing towards that mission.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
