Quote by Roseann Cecil

                        
                       


The Secret Club Project:
Artists on Pregnancy Loss

In 2000, seven years after my own miscarriage, I won a modest grant to seek out other women artists who were exploring the theme of pregnancy loss in their work. At that time, it seemed unlikely that I would receive many submissions for what I thought was an obscure theme. I was not aware that one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage and half a million women have miscarriages annually in the United States.

Initially, nine women -- many of them accomplished professional artists -- agreed to join me in a groundbreaking exhibit at a gallery in western Massachusetts. The show stimulated a flurry of articles and reviews in the press, opening up a dialogue about this often hidden topic.

Since then, the Secret Club Project has received an outpouring of imagery submitted by over 45 national and international artists. These women (along with a few welcome men) pulled work from their archives, their basements, and under their beds. They had been compelled to create this artwork but had not always known where to show it. Some of the work had been exhibited previously, but the true topic had been kept covert. A few courageous artists had broken the taboos and put the artwork out into their communities -- in essense saying, "look at my grief, it is real".

Secret Club artists are asked to submit statements which are an important element of the project, as women break the silence about their artwork and the deeply personal experiences it reflects. Many of them wrote about the mixture of guilt, grief and rage they experienced following their unexpected loss. They reveal a common theme of feeling misunderstood at times by family, friends and health care providers and a lack of relevant rituals to mark this life-altering event.

The Secret Club Project is dedicated to the many women and men who carry a quiet loss, a loss that underlies their daily affairs and permeates their dreams with memories of children who were with them too briefly. The sudden and sometimes traumatic loss of a pregnancy can linger just under the surface for years. The gift of the artists presented here is their willingness to explore "a grief without a shape" and share the dark beauty of their imagery with us so that we, in turn, can create a more compassionate society.

The Secret Club continues to accept submissions of artwork and welcomes donations.

Laura Seftel
Founding Director
The Secret Club Project