Fran and Ruth: disabled artist-mothers have endured scrutiny, intrusion, judgement and criticism in adding to the population. Willing and equal the task of motherhood, Fran and Ruth’s stories of motherhood are full of unencouraging reprove. As artists, however, they suddenly realised, they’ve not made art about this. Fran and Ruth will discuss lack of representation of Deaf/disabled parents and its intersection with being a disabled artist. What happens to the narrative of disabled artist mothers in areas such as our reproductive rights, our freedom to choose birthing procedures? How can children of disabled artist-parents be supported? Fran and Ruth will share with you a dissertation on why we as disabled artist-mothers do not represent these issues in our work and how important is it for disabled mother-artists to make art about being a disabled parent? What can institutions, arts and cultural producers do to support disabled parent-artists careers?

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Ruth Fabby

Fran Flaherty