We are living through great change.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, communities have come together in astonishing and inspiring ways. In March 2020, the Discovery Center partnered with the South Seattle Emerald to reach out to local communities to ask, “How are you dealing with the pandemic?” Answers came in the form of stories, recordings, and photographs. This collection inspired the online exhibition Enduring COVID-19: Stories from our Transforming World,

As the pandemic wears on, it has affected more lives than we ever imagined—and the stories we began collecting have grown into the exhibition you see now. This exhibition explores the collective needs that have arisen or come to light during COVID-19, inequities of race, gender, and geography, and the question,

“How do we experience change?”
How do we survive change?
How do we bring about change?
How are we changed?
How are we changing?

We hope you will reflect on your experiences as they relate to these stories, share your thoughts and experiences in the interactive sections, and find resources to take action and make a difference in your own community—and beyond.

Bringing together stories of strength, innovation, and hope from our community in Washington State during the COVID-19 pandemic, this online experience creates a forum for connection, empathy, and healing.

Exploring the challenges, inequities, creativity, and community spirit arising during the pandemic, the experience highlights stories under five main themes: Fighting and Treating COVID-19, Spreading Joy and Healing, Sharing Critical Information, Meeting the Needs of Communities, and Essential Workers Meeting Everyday Needs.

Explore the experience online now, and in the Gates Foundation Discovery Center’s galleries when it reopens to the public (TBD).

 

While being born is a universal human experience, the designs that shape it are not. Many remain taboo and inaccessible to many. This exhibition invites you to consider why and how these designs were developed to facilitate reproductive health, and to ponder the political, economic, and social implications.  Designing Motherhood considers the evolution of rights and societal norms pertaining to conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences over the last 150 years, highlighting that birth—and the material culture that surrounds it—impacts every living person.

This exhibition was organized as a collaboration between the Designing Motherhood curatorial team, the Mütter Museum, and thought leaders Maternity Care Coalition, a direct-service organization that ensures families can birth with dignity, parent with autonomy, and raise babies who are healthy, growing, and thriving.

In Seattle, the exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Discovery Center curatorial team. Thank you to the Seattle area Designing Motherhood advisory committee: Amie Bishop, Senior Research Advisor for OutRight Action International; Angela Garbes, Seattle-based writer and author of Like A Mother (2018); Ari Robbins Greene, proud dad to two children; Dr. Cyril Engmann, Senior Director of Quality and Program Impact and Institutional Official at PATH; Dila Perera, Executive Director at Open Arms Perinatal Services; Mercedes Snyder, owner of Something Beautiful Midwifery; Rebecca Mauldin, Director of Communications & Development at ChildStrive.