Mother Tongue is an ongoing interactive community visual dialogue. It began in 1991 between two artists, project Director mary Bernstein and co-founder Terry Rumble, in Holyoke MA and has since grown to be a national project including more than 128 artists, students, and community members who have created over 300 works, in response to each other in dialogue. The artwork takes the form of 1'x4' horizontal panels ranging from traditional paintings, to multimedia assemblage and low relief sculptures. The exhibition is dynamic changing its arrangement between, and sometimes during shows, reflecting the fluid nature of the visual conversation. For information about Mother Tongue contact Mary Bernstein (mmm01002@yahoo.com).

The Mother Tongue Interactive Archive, created in 1999, allows you to navigate among the relationships between the works. Above each work you will see the works that inspired it, and below each work you will see the works that it inspired. To see the Mother Tongue images in their dialogue relationships, click on the button for GALLERY. You will see a large image in the middle with its inspirations above and responses below. By clicking on the INDEX button, you can see an overview of all the images in chronological order produced from 1991-1999. The ARTISTS button shows works by author. If you see an image that interests you, click and it will come up with its related images. If you want more information about that image click on the appropriate prompts or any of the related images to bring them to the center. To find an image by title, artist, date or subject category, go to SEARCH and either type in or use drop boxes as indicated, then click the search button at the bottom. For information about Mother Tongue Interactive contact Tom Murray (tmurray@cs.umass.edu).

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Mother Tongue began in 1991 between two artists who met weekly in conversation - verbal and visual. As their dialogue developed, others were invited to create panels, which expanded the conversation. In 1993, Mother Tongue opened for public participation through exhibitions and weekly open workshops. In its early years the project took the concept of visual dialogue to many local community sites including: Holyoke, MA - Canal Gallery & Heritage State Park Museum; Westfield MA Westfield State College; Springfield, MA - Fine Arts Gallery, Springfield Technical Community College; Portland, ME - New England Artists Congress; Amherst, MA - Burnett Gallery, Jones Library;
         In 1996 Mother Tongue initiated Satellite Projects. The Chelsea Artist Group began a visual dialogue inspired by Mother Tongue in the fall of 1996. A Maine statewide Mother Tongue Satellite Project sponsored by the Union of Maine Visual Artists started in January 1997. This dialogue began at two sites: College of the Atlantic at Bar Harbor and University of Southern Maine in Portland. These exhibitions stimulated new work resulting in response shows at the Ellsworth Library in Ellsworth and The University of Maine at Augusta. In 1998 the dialogue was introduced at Castleton College in Castleton Vermont with an exhibit and course on visual dialogue. These activities culminated in a show of over 100 student panels shown with the initiating Mother Tongue panels. This exhibition showcased the results of the dialogue process.
         In the fall of 1998 a Mother Tongue exhibit opened at Webster College in St Louis initiating a satellite project in that city. First Webster students had an opportunity to dialogue with Mother Tongue, then the works traveled to The Storefront Gallery sponsored by Visual Dialogues which ran workshops and teacher training's in the visual dialogue process. In 1999 the original Mother Tongue work returned to Massachusetts leaving the branch dialogue to grow and evolve in St Louis
         In the year 2000 Mother Tongue has been archiving the pathways of the dialogue by creating this website that displays the images with their dialogue links. The linear nature of the technology allows the instant display of these links, but risks overdefining the solidity of these relationships. In contrast, a physical exhibition gives the viewer more discretion in creating his or her own visual relationships while moving around in a nonlinear way. We therefore recommend that you use this website as a motivation to visit or to bring a Mother Tongue show near you where you can participate and create your own dialogue.
         The Mother Tongue project has been informed by many sources, particularly the ideas of physicist and philosopher David Bohm. Bohm investigated the nature of individual thought and its tendency to defend its own assumptions. He experimented with verbal dialogue groups in an attempt to create a stream of meaning out of which would emerge a new understanding. Inspired by his philosophy, Mother Tongue applies techniques of visual interchange to stimulate and make visible the flow of the dialogue process.

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