Listen to My Photographs: Featuring the work of artists from The Care Center Art Exhibition
Venue: Split Level Gallery, 33 Hawley Street, Northampton, MA 01060
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Friday; 10 - 7, Saturday; 12 - 7, closed Monday & Tuesday Contact: Mollye Maxner: mollyemaxner@apearts.org
For additional public programming related to this exhibit, visit apearts.org
A.P.E. presents Listen to My Photographs, the powerful and expressive work of artists from The Care Center, a transformative educational program for women in Holyoke, MA.
In July 2025, students in The Care Center's high school equivalency program for young mothers explored the art of storytelling in a series of photography workshops organized and facilitated by Ani Rivera, Mari Champagne, and Madeline Keating. The work featured in this exhibition emerged from those workshops, where more than a dozen participants learned to use the tools of photographic image-making to express their voices and visions. They used D-SLR and film cameras, created cyanotype prints, wrote about their photographs, digitally edited them, and learned about curation. They gained valuable camera skills along with insight into photography as fine art and as a profession. Their work was exhibited at AIRSpace Gallery in Amherst, MA from August 13-22.
About The Care Center: The Care Center, located in Holyoke, MA, helps women whose educations have been interrupted by pregnancy, parenthood, and systemic barriers complete high school and succeed in college. The Care Center’s high school equivalency program for young mothers provides small class sizes, robust academics, art, poetry, athletics, and an unwavering commitment to success. Supports such as transportation, daycare, counseling, meals, and a nurse practitioner allow students to concentrate on their studies. With all this in place, 75% of graduates continue to college each year, creating new trajectories for their families.
At the college level, The Care Center partners with Bard College to run Bard Microcollege Holyoke, the nation’s first college for young mothers and other low-income women. Graduates enter the workforce prepared for meaningful jobs, and many students continue their education further, earning full scholarships at prestigious colleges and universities. The Care Center is
also the home of the Bard Clemente Course in the Humanities, a two-semester introductory college course. It is the longest running Clemente course in the country and the only one exclusively serving women.
The Care Center’s groundbreaking programs and unique integration of education, arts, and culture have been recognized nationally by The White House, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and on National Public Radio.
A.P.E. Curation in The Split Level Gallery: A.P.E. curates six months of exhibitions in the Split Level Gallery at 33 Hawley Street each year. 2026 winter artists were selected through A.P.E.’s Open Call. 2026 summer artists were selected through both the Open Call and A.P.E.’s Emerging Curator Program.
Available Potential Enterprises, Ltd. (A.P.E.) is an artist-led, artist-centered 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting contemporary artists working in all disciplines by stewarding the spaces in which they create, perform and exhibit their work. A.P.E is dedicated to fostering relationships, encounters, and exchanges that nourish the capacity for imagination.
apearts.org || 413.586.5553
A.P.E.’s work is made possible in part through ongoing support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ Valley Creates program.
