Into the Fold / Mother Artist Identity: A Nine-Month Creative Community

February - October 2026

This nine-month online cohort creates space for artist-parents and caregivers to develop their creative practice through structured sessions, generative prompts, peer dialogue, and critical feedback. While we center the lived experiences of caregiving and parenting, we welcome artists working across themes and approaches to art-making. This is a space where your role as caregiver informs but doesn't limit your creative inquiry.

Who This Is For

Artists working across all disciplines are welcome. Whether you're deep in a specific project or seeking community and structure to begin, you're welcome here. This is a space to create, transform, share work-in-progress, and receive thoughtful critique. For some, this will be a place of deep exploration into new ways of working; for others, a space to polish, edit, and complete an existing project.

This intimate cohort is limited to 8 to 12 participants to ensure meaningful dialogue and individualized attention.

Format & Structure

Primary Sessions: We meet online on the third Wednesday of each month, 7:00-10:00 PM EST, for nine months. Each session includes:

• A brief lecture exploring artist-parent identity in historical and contemporary contexts

• Group conversation and critique of participant projects

• Curated readings and resources to support your evolving practice

• Yes! There will be breaks and pivots - this is a flexible, responsive space.

• Yes! Some sessions, such as lectures, guest visits and other resource conversations, can be recorded and shared if you miss a session (life happens)! However, in the case of crits, it is at the discretion of participants and case by case. We go deep!

Additional Support: Optional drop-in "office hours" with Lesly are available for an additional 2 hours per month (timing determined by cohort) for project support or co-working sessions—because many of us thrive working in company and benefit from tangible creative dates on our calendars.

All participants are welcome to join a private Into the Fold online community page managed by Lesly (this is not a Facebook page) for additional resources, inspiration, networking & friendship outside of our sessions. This page is free from the algorithm.

Community Building: Participants will be invited to attend other in person and online events (panels, artist talks, screenings) Lesly is creating throughout the year, including opportunities to gather in person in NYC, as a means of expanding our networks and supporting one another. In month seven, we'll welcome a guest artist or curator. Past guests have included Toni Pepe and Dyana Gravina.

Context & Framework

Pioneering figures like Mary Kelly, Catherine Opie, and Renee Cox established critical frameworks that contemporary artists continue to build upon. Today, maternal art studies, feminist mothering scholarship, and international artist-parent networks offer robust tools for creative inquiry into care work. Yet despite COVID-era conversations about "essential work," caregiving remains undervalued and underrepresented in art, culture, public health funding, and advocacy.

Through examining historical and contemporary work, participants will contextualize their own creative investigations while building a visual and theoretical vocabulary. We'll explore questions of visibility and invisibility, the domestic as site of artistic production, the body in transformation, intergenerational relationships, environmental care, and the political dimensions of both nurturing work and artistic practice. Whether your work directly addresses care or explores entirely different terrain, we'll investigate how your position as caregiver-artist informs your perspective and process. Participants are encouraged to experiment, take risks, and push their practice in unexpected directions.

What You Might Create

A nine-month format supports completion of substantial projects and a welcoming space to grow your practice which may include:

• An artist book or zine(s)

• A gallery-ready series

• Artist/project statements, writing and general portfolio development

• Cohesive bodies of work positioned for exhibition opportunities, publishing, residencies, or grant applications

• A practice that supports your wellbeing

Artists without a specific end goal are equally welcome. Many participants simply seek ongoing critical dialogue and community support for their evolving practice. Work in progress is the reality for most of us—you've been busy, and coming into this space with the intention to make is welcome and valued.

Join Us

To ensure this cohort is the right fit for everyone, we ask interested participants to submit a brief interest form sharing a bit about themselves and their practice. This helps us create a cohesive, supportive community.

How to Apply

The interest inquiry includes:

• 3-5 images of your work (any medium, any stage - work-in-progress welcome)

• A short written response (250-300 words) about what draws you to this program and what you hope to explore or create during these nine months

• Basic contact information + any additional materials you would like to share (not required)

Interest emails are reviewed on a rolling basis, and you'll hear back within one week of submission. Thank you in advance! Email all materials to DeschlerCanossi@gmail.com

If you'd like to set up a call to discuss whether this is the right fit for you before applying, please reach out—I'm happy to connect.

Tuition:

Registration opens December 1st, 2025, please sign up below to receive more information.

Early Bird Registration (by December 15, 2025): $1,250 USD total (save $100)

• First installment of $625 due upon registration to secure your spot

• Second installment of $625 due by March 1, 2026

Regular Registration (after December 15, 2025): $1,350 USD total

• First installment of $675 due upon registration to secure your spot

• Second installment of $675 due by March 1, 2026

Monthly Payment Plan: $175 USD/month for 9 months (total: $1,575 USD, card on file or alternate payment plan).

Payment information, cancellation policy and testimonials coming soon!

“My work, for so many years, has come back to the feeling and experience of grief. I couldn’t, in my wildest dreams, have imagined a class as perfect as this one existing. Lesly and Anthoula created such a beautifully safe space for artists to share, express, and sit with feelings that we all experience so deeply. I’m incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to take this class and to make and share work with my classmates, all while processing these images and feelings together. Thank you both for everything, always!”

-Olive, Framing Grief, 2025

Image by: Marjolaine Gallet

“Framing Grief is not just a class; it is the creative and sensitive support I began to seek since I knew of my mother's illness. I sought support in death cafes, with friends, and with my therapist, but nothing was as loving as this experience with Anthoula and Lesly, who were always kind enough to ask me how my mother was doing and how I was feeling.
I will always be deeply grateful. Thank you for everything.”

-Majo, Framing Grief, 2025

Framing Grief