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LISTEN TO MY PHOTOGRAPHS:

WORK BY ARTISTS FROM THE CARE CENTER

JANUARY 21 - 
FEBRUARY 28
Split Level Gallery: Courtyard Level 

Artist Reception: January 13, 5-8pm









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. 

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.  






A.P.E.'s programming is made possible in part by sustained support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.