In our latest episode, we welcome Maria and Elizabeth, the co-founders and co-directors of The ART of Infertility, to share their personal experiences with infertility and their collaborative advocacy work. Though their individual family building journeys took different paths, both Elizabeth and Maria emphasize the importance of the supportive communities they found as they navigated infertility diagnoses and their subsequent experiences with fertility treatment, loss, adoption, and step-parenting. They both also found that creative outlets like visual art and writing were immensely helpful for processing their journeys.
Together Maria and Elizabeth founded The ART of Infertility, a national arts organization that challenges perceptions of infertility through visual art and storytelling and advocates for creativity to be incorporated as a therapeutic outlet for fertility patients as part of broader mental health support in clinical settings. Through exhibits, workshops, and their book Infertilities, A Curation, Elizabeth and Maria stress the need for open discussions about infertility to foster understanding and connection, and hope to inspire anyone feeling overwhelmed by their family building journey to explore creativity as a step towards healing.
Founder and Co-director of The ART of Infertility, Elizabeth Horn, has worked in health care communications since 2000. A trained photographer, Elizabeth began using other mediums to express her experiences with infertility after being diagnosed in 2010. She also began documenting others’ stories through portraits and interviews. The stories are shared to advocate for improvements to quality of care and outcomes and reduce disparities for those with infertility. The ART of Infertility received the 2018 Hope Award for Innovation from RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. Connect with Elizabeth at elizabeth@artofinfertility.org.
Maria Novotny is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Drawing on a reproductive justice framework, she writes about reproductive advocacy, in particular infertility and recurrent reproductive loss. Her award winning co-edited collection Infertilities, A Curation, published by Wayne State UP, portrays the ranging experiences of infertility in art and writing. She also serves as the Co-Director for The ART of Infertility, which is an arts-based infertility storytelling project. Connect with Maria at maria@artofinfertility.org.
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