The Creativity Caravan Announces “My Mother’s Keeper” Powerful Exhibit Opening May 4, 2018

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My Mother’s Keeper is an exhibition featuring the work of 23 women, all daughters of mothers who suffer from mental illness. Whether the illness has a diagnostic label like depression, schizophrenia, addiction, or bipolar disorder, or is described in hushed tones as a nervous breakdown, insanity, or dark night of the soul, mental illness can wreak havoc on a daughter’s life with the force of a natural disaster.

The experience can also be transformative. Coping with a mother’s mental illness can promote empathy, strengthen resilience, summon creativity, and enable a woman to access untapped wisdom. In this exhibit daughters provoke us, surprise us, entrust us, and enlighten us about their mother’s struggle with mental illness: What it has meant to them and what they have lost or gained while living with it.

This exhibit is made possible through a collaboration with Intensive Family Support Services of the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc., in acknowledgement of Mental Health Awareness Month, and in honor of Mother’s Day. Information about resources for family members of loved ones with mental illness will be made available throughout the course of the exhibit.

The exhibit will open with a reception for the public (some of the artists will be in attendance) on Friday May 4 from 5 - 8 PM. It is a free event. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibit will be on display through June 4.

Workshops and events will accompany My Mother’s Keeper throughout the month of May including:

Tuesday May 15, 7-9 p.m. An Evening of Readings, in partnership with Halfway There. Writers will read essays, fiction, poetry, prose on this topic

Thursday May 17 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Unsent Letters. A workshop facilitated by writing teacher Trina O’Gorman

For more information call 201.259.9801 or email hello@thecreativitycaravan.com

Since its founding in 2013, The Creativity Caravan has been devoted to sparking, engaging, and nourishing creativity in communities everywhere, with the belief that creativity can change lives by building self-confidence, harnessing imagination, helping to practice problem-solving, and bridging differences. Programs are centered on the joy of discovery and power of collaborative learning, with art and writing experiences - along with special events and exhibits - designed for children and adults of all ages and abilities.