About Our Adoption Project

Our Adoption Project brings together artists, adoptees, first parents, adoptive parents, advocacy groups, social care and legal professionals and more to explore the complex narratives that surround one of the most impactful events that could happen to a family.

This year sees the centenary of adoption as a formal, legal process. But what if everything we think we know about creating families beyond biology can be looked at through a different lens?

Through contemporary art, conversation and events, Our Adoption Project asks us to look beyond the familiar stories we tell and make space for something more complicated. 

At the heart of the project is A Soft Inheritance, a multi-disciplinary exhibition showcasing artists whose lives and practices have been touched by adoption. Launching this autumn at PINK, Stockport Greater Manchester, the exhibition brings together artists whose lives have been impacted by adoption and puts them into conversation with one another.

Alongside the exhibition, Conversations is a programme of talks and creative workshops exploring the modern adoption landscape. These events will create opportunities to listen, share experiences and consider some of the difficult questions surrounding adoption whilst inviting guests to respond to the exhibition.

By inviting a multiplicity of voices to share their lived experiences, Our Adoption Project is looking beyond fairytale endings to understand the complex realities of separation and loss, discovery and joy that make up adoption today.

Whether you have a personal connection to adoption, work within the adoption system, are interested in contemporary art, or simply want to understand more about the experiences behind the word adoption, you are invited to join the discussion.