Care Everywhere: Photography and Print as a Lens on Care

This exhibition invites viewers to look beyond stereotypical images of caregiving by women and individuals assigned female at birth in an effort to expand our understanding of care. What do we assume that care looks like? How does care manifest beyond those assumptions? How can a museum be a place of care? Care is complex—it manifests in a variety of forms, including among family, within friendships, as care for oneself, as spiritual practice, and in holding space for grief.

Care is everywhere, even within institutions built on systems of oppression. American museums have historically highlighted Eurocentric histories of white male artists, while marginalizing or erasing non-western, Black, and Indigenous cultures. However, museums are increasingly moving to address this oppressive history through efforts such as cultural repatriation, trauma-informed practices, and centering BIPOC, queer, and women artists. Museum professionals pour care into their work because of the power of objects to tell stories beyond the canon of art history. They have the power to bring marginalized, queer, and racialized experiences to the forefront. Traditionally, care for objects has been at the center of museum work, but we also believe that care for visitors should be central to the responsibilities of a museum.

This exhibition, drawn from the Loeb’s collection, is intended to be viewed in conjunction with the exhibition "Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency", on view in the downstairs galleries until February 2, 2025. "Reproductive" underscores the humanity of those who have struggled for access to reproductive care, especially in the face of historical and systemic discrimination. This exhibition extends those themes by emphasizing how care is everywhere, scattered all around us—if we care to notice—by highlighting the humanity that is evident in works of art.

-Betsy Subiros ’25

This exhibition is generously supported by the Hoene Hoy Photography Fund.