Wednesday, March 21, 2012

"The Milk Truck" in Toronto

I love Jill Miller's Milk Truck project and its tongue-in-cheek approach to the right to breastfeeding anytime, anywhere.

Breastfeeding rights fuel The Milk Truck

Miller’s mobile art installation, called The Milk Truck, makes its Toronto debut this weekend at New Maternalisms, an exhibition by FADO Performance Art Centre that explores the intersection of art and motherhood.
The truck is a mix of guerrilla theatre, advocacy and slapstick humour with a message: all mothers have the right to breastfeed anywhere, anytime. It is equipped with nursing-friendly plush chairs inside as well as folding chairs and an awning for warmer weather.
During the show, the Milk Truck will be on call for moms facing breastfeeding dilemmas, as it was for Pittsburg mothers throughout the fall (she’s now in the process of turning the project into a non-profit). Any mother hassled in a store, mall, restaurant or elsewhere can send a message using Twitter (@Pghmilktruck), Facebook or the truck hotline. Her location then gets posted on social media and the website (www.themilktruck.org) and the vehicle plus a cast of nursing moms are dispatched.
“We’re saying (to businesses) if you think the nursing mother created a spectacle, we’re going to bring you an even bigger one,” says Miller, who’s also requesting stories of breastfeeding in Toronto — good and bad — through a survey on the website, and plans to use them to plot a driving route through the city on Friday.