2027 FESTIVAL | MAY 28-29-30 |
SCHEDULE OF FESTIVITIES TBD
Welcome to the Celia Center Arts Festival
Join us May 28, 29 & 30, 2027 for a powerful celebration of art, identity, healing, and belonging.
The Celia Center Arts Festival brings together the voices and creative work of adoptees and people impacted by foster care through an unforgettable weekend of visual art and live performance. Experience a beautiful immersive installation, two original one-woman shows, and a collection of original artwork created by adoptees, each piece illuminating the complexity, courage, creativity, and resilience within the foster care and adoption community.
This festival is more than an arts event. It is an invitation to listen, witness, connect, and better understand the lived experiences behind adoption and foster care. Through storytelling and artistic expression, we are creating space for voices that deserve to be seen, heard, and celebrated.
Come experience the stories. Celebrate the artists. Witness the resilience.
The Celia Center Arts Festival is proudly funded and presented by Celia Center, supporting education, healing, connection, and advocacy within the foster care and adoption community.
Jeanette Yoffe created the Celia Center Arts Festival to provide a platform for artists who have been impacted by foster care and adoption to express their experiences through various creative mediums. This festival aims to bring together the voices of adoptees and foster youth, offering them a space to share their stories, foster community, and deepen the conversation around adoption and foster care.
Yoffe’s motivation stemmed from her personal journey as a former foster youth-adoptee and her desire to understand and connect with her biological roots. She learned about her first mother’s artistic background, Celia Barbosa, and involvement with the Di Tella Foundation an Artist’s Community in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1960’s. This knowledge inspired Jeanette to create an arts festival that would celebrate and support the creative expressions of others with similar experiences. The festival highlights the challenges and triumphs of those who were adopted as well as those who are in the foster care system, with the aim to provide emotional and psychological healing for all, through the art of self expression to build resilience.
Performing Arts
Looking for 3-4 theatre pieces written & performed by foster and/or adoptees. Theatre pieces may be any type of live performance: plays, dance, and solo work only. Performance shall be no less than 10 minutes and no longer than 60 minutes. Technical aspects of performance shall be simple with easy load in/out. Performance will be provided with general lighting and sound capabilities. Performance will also be provided a stage manager to run show. Celia Center will publicize event as a whole, but each performance is encouraged to publicize their piece individually. With application, please also provide a .pdf of script. If theatre piece has been performed, please provide any files/links to videos, reviews, or anything you believe would be helpful.
Music & Dance
We are looking for foster/adoptee musicians and dancers. Musicians and dancers will be performing throughout the day. Performances may take place in the lobby, in theatres before & after performances/workshops, in the studio (museum), as well as outside by entrance of the building.
Film & Visual Arts
We are looking for foster/adoptee filmmakers. Films will be screened throughout the day. Films will take place in the theatre before & after performances/workshops, in the studio (museum), as well as in the lobby by the entrance of the building.
Creative Arts
We are looking for paintings, sketches, photographs, sculpture, jewelry, any piece of art created by foster/adoptees “showing the experience”. Artists pieces will be on display in the studio exhibit. Artist may sell art to patrons under the stipulation that art remain in display throughout entire festival; arrangements for art pickup after festival will be arranged between artist and buyer. Along with application, please provide website and/or photos of or links to the piece(s) of art being submitted.
Healing Arts
Looking for 3-4 creative workshops centering on the theme of foster/adoption that encourage and challenge participants to use their imagination and foster their creativity. Workshops can vary from writing exercises to improvisation to collage/scrapbooking to shadow-puppetry to role-playing. Really the sky’s the limit on creativity, but we are looking for workshops that may first dip into the subconscious of the participants followed by a release. A safe environment is of the utmost importance! Workshops shall be no longer than 90 minutes. Along with application, please provide any needs the workshop may have.
DISPLAY REQUIREMENTS
Only works of art created by the artist(s) accepted by the Festival may be displayed or offered for sale. Only work in the medium category or categories in which the artist is accepted may be shown…
FESTIVAL CONDITIONS
Celia Center Arts Festival upholds high standards of quality as a fine art and fine craft. The following ‘Conditions of the Festival’ help to ensure that these standards of quality are consistently met and…
FESTIVAL SLATED FOR | MAY 2027
WHAT
An Art Festival consisting of Theatre, Dance, Fine Art, Photography, Music, Film, and Healing Arts Workshops created by Adoptees and those who went through the Foster Care system.
WHO
Celia Center addresses the critical needs of the Foster Care / Adoption community by providing awareness, education, and support services to all members of origin-foster-adoption constellation, including professional social workers, nurses, case managers and therapists via support …
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2027 SUBMISSIONS ARE FULL AT THIS TIME