Panel Discussion + Closing Reception

Do You Even Care?, a panel discussion moderated by Erica Prince on the intersection of creative practice and caretaking, taking place May 8 from 6–7 PM at mtn space. A closing reception for It Takes YEARS To Grow A Pineapple will follow from 7–9 PM.

Bringing together artists whose work is deeply intertwined with lived experiences of care, this conversation reflects the multitudes artists hold while sustaining both creative and caregiving practices. Central to Erica Prince’s work is an ongoing engagement with caretaking—not only as a personal reality, but as a conceptual and emotional framework. This panel extends that commitment, creating space for dialogue around labor, responsibility, intimacy, and the often unseen structures of support that shape artistic life.

The panel features artists Mylinh Chau, Tommy Coleman, Melissa DelPrete, and Michelle A M Miller, each offering distinct yet overlapping perspectives:

Mylinh Chau creates both art objects and relational projects while balancing life as a parent of two, a public school teacher, and a nonprofit leader. Her perspective is informed by a non-Western, Buddhist understanding of caretaking, emphasizing interdependence, ritual, and the ways care operates across family, community, and cultural memory.

Tommy Coleman’s practice spans object-making, poetry, and language, grounded in questions of intimacy, identity, and emotional transparency. As a teacher and caregiver to both a parent and a close friend, his experience brings forward a perspective on care that includes masculinity, vulnerability, and the navigation of responsibility within personal and communal spheres.

Melissa DelPrete, artist, mother, and founder/director of mtn space, brings a perspective shaped by sustaining a creative practice alongside parenting and her ongoing commitment to supporting other artists. Through her work as a community organizer and gallery director—particularly in advocating for artists—she engages care as both a personal ethic and a structural practice within the art world.

Michelle A M Miller works across art objects, writing, and relational practices shaped by her experience as a caregiver to her parents and as a trained end-of-life doula. Her work engages themes of impermanence, presence, and transformation, bringing a nuanced understanding of care at the threshold of life, as well as its emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Together, the panelists will explore how caregiving informs artistic production, how creative work adapts within the demands of daily life, and how care can function as both a constraint and a generative force. The conversation aims to open space for reflection, shared language, and new ways of understanding the relationship between art and lived experience.