We Are Not Our Cruxes centers the voices and mental health of adult adoptees and those who have gone through the foster care system. The project seeks to strengthen community and provide healing through art.
Through a series of hybrid (online and in-person) convenings, participants will engage in critical conversations aimed at exploring their unique struggles and experiences. Additionally, these gatherings will offer art-based healing workshops, carefully designed to explore the emotional landscape of adult adoptees and those who have survived the foster care system while simultaneously promoting emotional well-being and resilience.
Invited panelists for the critical conversations include adoptee and/or foster care alumni artists, activists, mental health professionals, and scholars.
Events are designed for adults and for 18+. If you not an adult adoptee or someone who has gone through the foster care system, you are invited to to attend and to learn about our experiences. Those who identify as adult adoptees and/or foster care alumni are invited to be part of a connected research project.
All events will be recorded to form part of a short documentary at a later date.
The final result will be an online interactive emotion map detailing adoptee emotional journeys with scholarly contributions. As a transcultural adoptee, artist, and art therapist, Nicole Rademacher is heading this project. This set of resources will break ground in establishing a new pathway for treatment and healing for adoptees and their supporting community.
This project is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.
