The Mourning Project Nears #23000BabyBooties Milestone by Mary Vaneecke

I am so pleased to be able to announce that The Mourning Project, a huge community art project to collect 23,000 pairs of handmade baby booties, is near the end of the collection phase of the project! 

Hand-stitched booties for The Mourning Project.

Hundreds of makers are creating The Mourning Project to witness the grief of parents who mourn the loss of an infant, to raise awareness about the problem of infant mortality in the United States (which has the worst infant mortality rate in the developed world), and to begin a discussion about how we can give American infants the best chance at life.

The Mourning Project is gathering a little handmade elegy, a pair of baby booties, for each American baby lost before their first birthday. The project will call attention to the infant mortality rate in the US and educate the public about science-based solutions to this problem. Our goal is to raise awareness and literally save lives. We have the worst IM rate in the developed world and lose 23,000 babies every year. Other countries have practiced cost-effective treatments for years, so we know what works. We must call attention to this problem to create change.

As one maker wrote, It was a very cathartic project for me and I appreciated the opportunity to make booties to honor our Grandson Maxwell. …I can't thank you enough for heading up such an important project for awareness of infant mortality and for loved ones to make peace with their loss.

Or as another maker, Merle Eintracht put it, My love is in every stitch.

The booties will become part of a 38' by 38' art installation. As of April 2022, we are nearing the collection phase of the project, with only 5 kits of 100 pairs of booties left to be stitched. Partial installations have been viewed at guilds and art centers throughout the country, including Hyde Park in Chicago and Visions Art Museum in San Diego. See a virtual exhibition at TheMourningProject.com. We hope to document the first complete installation of the project with time-lapse drone photography or an animated short documentary to preserve this huge community art project in perpetuity.

Your financial gifts will support creation and exhibition of the booties, video documentation, shipping crates, etc. When exhibitions end, booties will be donated to organizations, like the March of Dimes, that serve infants and loss parents. Click here for a link to our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, to make an online gift.  

Check out our exhibition schedule and learn more about the issue at TheMourningProject.com. There are still a few kits of 100 pre-cut, embellished booties left to stitch.  Contact me at mary@maryvaneecke.com if you can hand or machine stitch a kit.  Be a part of this compelling project and help save little lives.

detail, The Mourning Project