Baltimore-native, Nia Celeste, is an interdisciplinary community and collage artist whose practice bridges photography, creative writing, film, and abstraction through an intuitive and layered approach. She creates to learn, to heal, to self-reflect and ponder and uses mediums as tools of introspection to investigate selfhood, faith, and the human experience. Guided by intuitive inquiry, mood, and process, Celeste's work explores life as a process of constant grief and evolution with the need to identify, understand, and cope with the influence of our mind, will, and emotions in our past, present, and future. As a community artist, she educates, commemorates, and repairs by placing historic value on personal stories of grief and evolution needed for inner and community growth. Celeste integrates the agency of creative entrepreneurship and community arts to disrupt old structures, discover new systems of care, and foster hope in Baltimore and beyond. 

With a B.A. in Studio Art, minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and certificate in African American studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Community Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Celeste spent two years as a Americorp and MICA Community Art Collaborative member at Baltimore Youth Arts and is currently a second year France Merrick Fellow at No Boundaries Youth Organizers and Bolton North Senior Living as well as an ATO fellow with The Ulman Foundation.

— Georges Braque