by Elizabeth Walker
Four years ago today, I put the final pieces of artwork on the wall and opened what became the first exhibit of The ART of Infertility. There’s no way I could have imagined then, what this organization and the people I’ve met through it would become to me.
The remnants of my IVF retrieval and frozen embryo transfers, included in the piece, Crib with Medication Boxes.
I’d just completed my final treatment cycle, a frozen embryo transfer, which was unsuccessful. I didn’t know where I’d go next, but I knew I needed time and space to figure things out. The ART of Infertility has been that for me over these years. Even better, it has allowed me to give others their own time and space so that they may also use art as a source of healing.
In the past four years, my dear friend and co-director, Maria and I, along with a team of dedicated and passionate interns and volunteers, have traveled to 14 states and the District of Columbia (plus Switzerland) and held 22 exhibits and 23 workshops, and given 12 presentations. We’ve collected and shared hundreds of infertility stories through art.
I’m forever grateful to those of you who have supported this organization. To you who have spread the word, attended our events, allowed us to come into your homes to interview you, and have parted with your artwork so we can travel with it and share diverse stories of infertility, we thank you. To our exhibit hosts, partners, and sponsors, thank you for helping us amplify the voices and experiences of those with infertility. To our families; Scott, Kevin, and our pups, who miss us both when we’re home and when we’re gone, thank you for understanding what this work means to us.
- The first exhibit, The ART of IF: Navigating the Journey of Infertility, opened at Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson, MI on March 22, 2014. Photo by Elizabeth Walker.
- Some results of a blackout poetry workshop in Seattle in April of 2017. Photo by Anne Burgess Photography.
- Panel discussion with Maya (center) after a screening of the film, One More Shot, in Salt Lake City this February. Photo by Steven Vargo.
- The Gift an artist and patient pairing by Susan Conrad Risse and Sylinda Mendenhall. Photo by Elizabeth Walker.
- Arches in Perspective: The ART of Infertility in Utah spanned two galleries. Art Access is seen here. Photo by Sarah Arnoff.
- Urban Arts Gallery, Salt Lake City. Arches in Perspective: The ART of Infertility in Utah was displayed here and at Art Access. Photo by Sarah Arnoff.
We have exciting exhibits and programming this year. We just wrapped an amazing month in Salt Lake City, Utah and in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In a matter of weeks, we’ll be in Madison, WI and we will spend the month of June in Los Angeles and the month of October in Chicago. We feel lucky every day that we get to do this work, even luckier when we’re jet-lagged and our muscles are sore from hauling suitcases, because it means we’re reaching further than we ever imagined.
I set out to be a parent, and co-parenting this organization with Maria has made every bit of my infertility journey worth it.
Check out our upcoming schedule, current calls for art, and find out how you can get involved at artofinfertility.org.