

A moment to yourself.
A chair in the soft light, something tasty at your fingertips.
Your hand slides down the backs of so many stories about carrying, caring, losing, laughing, choosing, letting go.
About motherhood in all its forms.
Choose a title. Breathe in.
Let the world calm down for a moment.
And read.
Reading in a green oasis
Throughout the summer, you are welcome to visit Museumcafé Centraal to get lost in a book in peace and quiet. On the terrace in the green courtyard, or inside on a soft sofa. Alone or together, once or do we see you weekly?
Eight titles about motherhood, maternity and parenting are waiting for you, in Dutch and English. From Ianthe Mosselman's love and anger to the raw explorations in The Transition Baby by Torrey Peters. Read about artist mothers in Julie Phillips' Baby on the Fire Escape, about true and unjust myths in Mothering Myths, and about primal soup, family ideals and care models in work by authors Bregje Hofstede, Lotte Houwink ten Cate, Daan Borrel and Joke de Wolf. Shelf Indulgence is an ongoing invitation on your own.
Tip: Julie Phillips Lecture
On Friday, August 29, Julie Phillips will be at the Centraal Museum to talk about her book Baby on the fire escape. She gives a lecture and has an aftertalk with curator Laurie Cluitmans and the audience. The main language for this event is English.
About Good Mom/Bad Mom
Supermama. Regrettable parent. Raven mother. Single mom. Consciously non-mother. Wishing mother. Bonus mom. Adoptive mother. Co-mother. Never mother. There are countless variants of motherhood. Good Mom/Bad Mom is an exhibition about motherhood, about caring, about the politics of the womb, about emancipation.
The exhibition offers a contemporary reflection on the art-historical cliché of the “good mother” and takes visitors on a journey through the history of the imagination of motherhood: from ancient, stereotypical and often romanticized mother-and-child imaginations to works by new and exciting generations of artists who deal with this theme in their own — and often very personal — way.