Carbon Theatre’s Courtenay Johnson talks about launching the Mothers Who Make initiative in Northamptonshire

Founded by circus aerialist and associate director of Improbable, theatre-maker Matilda Leyser, Mothers Who Make is a peer support group recognising “the experiences and challenges specific to being both a mother and artist”. Noting parallels between the two roles in terms of “creativity, play and patience” amongst other attributes, the group intends to challenge the idea that the two are “incompatible”. Having established the network 6 years ago, the initiative has gone from strength to strength, taking place in nearly 30 regions across the UK and overseas with 26 peer support meetings taking place monthly. Leading the Northamptonshire hub is creative producer of Carbon Theatre Courtenay Johnson, here she tells us more about the initiative and connecting with local artists.

Hi Courtenay, you’ll be teaming up with storyteller Jo Blake to lead the first Northamptonshire branch of the Mothers Who Make initiative. How are you feeling about the first meeting?

We’ve just recently had our first meeting and I’m delighted with how it went! It feels like I have been working on opening a new hub for decades but in reality, it has been about 18 months. We have finally done it!

I was anxious to reach mothers who I don’t know personally and it was lovely to see new faces as well as mothers I know well. Having Matilda Leyser, MWM founder, lead the first session is also such a gift. With all the passion that led her to create MWM and all her experience facilitating these meetings, you could feel everyone relax into it (after getting over the initial Zoom shyness!) and really enjoy themselves. I’m excited for our future meetings and growing the hub to include more local mother-makers as well as planning for our first in-person meeting when it looks safe to do so.

Mothers Who Make is a growing national initiative offering a monthly peer support group for mothers who are artists and makers at any stage in their creative paths. What inspired you to lead the group?

When I found out I was pregnant, I was at Mountview and ¾ of the way through my Creative Producing MA (oops). Once I’d got my head around all the personal stuff, I really wondered how I would be able to keep producing once that baby arrived – I’d only really just started. My tutor, the wonderful Chris Grady, first told me about Mothers Who Make and it gave me a small boost of confidence that it was possible to do both – be a mother and continue to make theatre.

Anyway, cut a long story short… I ended up becoming a single mother and relocating to my hometown in Northamptonshire. I soon found out how hard it was to try and produce outside of London and also how difficult it was to be a new mother! I felt like I needed a group of womxn around me who understood these two worlds. And if I felt like I needed that, I was sure other mothers would.

Sessions will be inclusive, connecting a network of artists and mothers to strengthen the creative roots of Northamptonshire. How will meetings be structured?

At the moment we are launching on Zoom as it isn’t quite safe yet to meet in person and it actually works really well. Zoom is a great platform; through a registration page each person is sent their own link to join the meeting (so it’s super secure) and we can also host breakout rooms if the group is big enough so that everyone gets a chance to speak. It’s a simple structure but it’s really effective.

After brief introductions, we host a talking circle where everyone gets a set time (3 or 4 minutes usually) and then we all respond and react before someone else speaks. There’s normally a theme or key question for the meeting but other than that is very free and open – anything that is about the dual roles of mother and maker. The meeting closes with reflections and then afterwards I will send everyone a list of all the resources (books, articles etc.) that have been recommended or talked about during the meeting. And that’s it!

The most beautiful things about the meetings is the environment that Matilda has created: open, respectful and supportive.

The initiative’s founder Matilda Leyser “understands the experiences and challenges specific to being both a mother and an artist and noticed the parallels between the two roles”. What have been your own experiences with artistic practice and motherhood?

It’s funny, in our first meeting I spoke of the pressure of being an actual mother and also being a mother of a project. As a producer, my job is to take an idea and turn it into a real project. Then once the project is happening, I look after it; my team, my budget, my participants, my audiences and have responsibility akin to being a parent to many. Making sure everyone is happy. Making sure everyone has what they need. Making sure we don’t spend too much money!

Both my artistic practice and my mothering are part of my identity and my passion – they are both highly emotive and skilful. And the hardest thing is they are both non-commercial, not valued – looking after my daughter doesn’t earn me money to live off and often my producing means months and months of planning and fundraising that sometimes come to nothing. They are difficult and you sacrifice a lot to do one let alone both roles!

What can mothers taking part expect from the meetings and network?

During the meetings, everyone has their chance to speak. It’s so valuable to have that time – with no expectation and no pressure to perform, just to speak. Anything you like and not be judged. The added bonus is that many of the listeners will understand or share some of your feelings – the first meeting really emphasised what unites us all. We are all different but we share so much doing these dual roles.

Outside the meetings, we have a supportive local network to rely on. We have a Facebook group (Mothers Who Make | Northamptonshire) where we can communicate in between meetings and share immediate links or thoughts etc. Being local also means of course that we can go for coffees and to each other’s events (when it’s safe of course).

The first sessions will take place on Zoom due to our current climate, moving forward how do you imagine meetings within our digital age?

Meetings on Zoom work really well and allow many people to join who can’t always make the in-person meetings. But the in-person meetings offer so much in terms of personal communication and time at the end for quick chats and catch up with people individually. So, I think we will end up doing meetings both online and offline – alternating between the two!

What are your hopes for the initiative in the future?

We are luckily supported by the Avon Fund administered by Northamptonshire Community Foundation and donations which has enabled us to start the hub and run our first batch of meetings. This has allowed us to offer these as Pay What You Can so people can join regardless of their finances. After this project stage, I hope to secure further funding to continue the network and be able to support our members in helpful ways by maybe offering commissions or other opportunities.

Of course, I hope it grows and grows and we can begin to dismantle the archaic notions of ‘professionalism’ being men in suits with invisible children! It was only a few months ago when someone at a county arts event scoffed and stormed away from me when they realised I was an unmarried single mother – we have a lot of work still to do.

Questions by Lucy Basaba.

To find out more about Mothers Who Make and how you can take part, visit here…