Working Assumptions

We are Working Assumptions, a non-profit organization making art happen about work and family to challenge assumptions about everyday life and build compassion. Through commissions, grants, and education programs, we encourage photographers, artists, students, and other creative people to amplify and encourage conversation about humanity’s daily routines — work, play, service, and family — and how these daily routines offer us the opportunity to connect with others, share common ground, and open up to transformative change. We intentionally seek broad and diverse audiences for our work, placing installations in unexpected and non-traditional venues, in addition to gallery settings. Our first exhibition, "Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?" explored the tremendous impact sports and play have daily on the lives of girls and women, asking viewers to consider what girls and women look like, freed from traditional feminine constraints, using their bodies in joyful and empowering ways. The exhibition debuted at the Smithsonian in 2001, later traveling to 16 arts venues in major cities around the country. Our exhibition, "Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace", captured visibly pregnant women at work in whatever situation their work prescribed: at home, in an office, in a classroom, in a store, in the field, or in an actual field. Our latest traveling installation, "Showing (work x family)" combines landmark commissioned photographs of pregnant women in the workplace with a curated selection of images by accomplished contemporary photographers and the photographs of high school students who are participating in our curriculum program, wrkxfmly. This multi-week assignment for high school photography students from diverse communities around the country challenges and supports young people to explore their unique and important perspectives on the intersection of work and family in their lives.