FRAN FLAHERTY

Fran Flaherty is the creator of Anthropology of Motherhood and a deaf artist living in Pittsburgh for over 25 years. As a first generation immigrant from the Philippines, her work is centered on issues surrounding migrant family relations and assimilation, maternal feminism, disability aesthetics, and social work. Her work is inspired by the care paradigm. A premise that human beings cannot survive alone and the progress of human beings, as a species, flows from our identity as social animals, connected to one another through ties of love, kinship, and clanship. It is the prospect of this harmony that inspired her to create Anthropology of Motherhood, an ongoing project which elevates the act of care-giving through fine art by transforming mundane objects of caregiving into valuable art pieces such as paintings, sculpture, and mixed media pieces. She also transforms busy public spaces into immersive installations that serve as places of respite for young children and their caregivers and is a member of the #notwhite collective. Recently, she was named in Art 511 Magazine’s “Top Ten NYC Artists Now”. Fran currently resides in Allison Park with her husband Tim, their sons, Liam, Sean, and Lucas, and her hearing dog Olympia. Her most recent work can be found at Zhou B Center in Chicago, Illinois, Dyers Art Center in Rochester, NY, and Carlow University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA.