Intro

Drawing on her own family’s struggles for care and her work with low-wage workers and new immigrant families, artist Marisa Morán Jahn began collaborating with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) in 2010. At that time, nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers — along with social justice movement leader Ai-jen Poo — had organized to pass the nation’s first laws granting New York’s 200,000 domestic workers the same right as other workers. A local chapter of domestic workers turned to Marisa to help get the word out. Under the umbrella term of “CareForce,” the body of work they created included an audionovela app for domestic workers that CNN named as “one of 5 apps to change the world,” two mobile studios (NannyVan and CareForce One), choreographed dances, printed works, policy toolkits. In 2019, Jahn embarked on an architectural and urban-scale project called Carehaus — the nation’s first care-based co-housing project. With co-founders Rafi Segal and Ernst Valery, Carehaus’ opens doors at its first site in Baltimore in 2025.

CareForce One

In 2013, Jahn and team created two mobile studios (The NannyVan, CareForce One) that set up in public spaces such as Toddler Storytime hour at public libraries, playgrounds, afterschool programs. The colorful, souped-up rides pumping music convened domestic workers an employers alike and help create new tools about the changing laws. Part of this journey is chronicled in the 24 minute PBS/ITVS film entitled CareForce One Travelogues.

About the Film: A humorous and touching road tale, the CareForce One Travelogues features Marisa, her son Choco, and their buddy Anjum Asharia as they travel from their homes in NYC to Miami in a fifty-year old station wagon, the CareForce One. Meeting up with nannies, housekeepers, caregivers, and allies along the way, this series explores how care intersects with some of today's most pressing issues — immigration, the legacies of slavery, racial discrimination, and more. After the film’s world premiere at the Brooklyn Museum and U.S. premiere at Pérez Art Museum of Miami, the film was made free to the public.

“[CareForce] exemplifies the possibilities of art as social practice.” —Artforum

“The CareForce harnesses the catalytic power of art, architecture, and storytelling to dream bigger, dream futures into being that we’ve never experienced and create new protagonists.” —Ai-jen Poo, Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Co-Director, Caring Across Generations

“The CareForce literally changed how my employers treated me.” —June Barrett, caregiver and worker leader

CareHaus

As the newest extension of the CareForce, Carehaus is the United States' first care-based, co-housing project. In a Carehaus, older adults, caregivers and their families live in independent living units clustered around shared spaces. In exchange for their labor, caregivers receive good wages, childcare, and various benefits. An additional team engages residents in shared meals, horticulture, art, fitness, physical therapy, financial literacy courses, and more. Carehaus was initiated by Marisa who then reached out to architect Rafi Segal and developer/urban planner Ernst Valery to co-found the project. http://carehaus.net

The making of Carehaus is featured in a half-hour documentary film series entitled “Where We Grow Older” conceived by Canadian Centre For Architecture (CCA)’s Director Giovanna Borasi, directed by Daniel Schwartz, and produced by the CCA. World Premiere at Lisbon Architecture Film Festival, 2023 with subsequent screenings internationally.

Gallery

Acclaim & Press

This body of artwork as a whole has been featured at The White House, United Nations, and municipal institutions; cultural venues such as The Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Venice Biennale of Architecture; art schools to law schools; community centers, libraries, and grassroots events such as National Nanny Training Day.

Organizational Partners

National Domestic Workers Alliance, Caring Across Generations, NuLawLab, Northeastern University Law School, National Employment Law Project, Urban Justice Center, Legal Aid Society, Brazilian Worker Center, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Pilipino Worker Center, Adhikaar for Human Rights, Hand in Hand: Domestic Employer Association, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Domestic Workers United, Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), Affiliated and unaffiliated domestic worker groups across the nation.

MIT Open Doc Lab, MIT Center for Civic Media, Terravoz, Arizona State University Art Museum, Queens Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Oakland Museum, Columbia College Chicago, 18th St. Arts, New York Arts Practicum

Support

Sundance Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, Fledgling Fund, Map Fund, Asian American Giving Circle, National Endowment for the Arts, Franklin Furnace.