Celtic Junction brick and mortar +rainbow!
CJAC's award from IrishCentral

MISSION & HISTORY

The Celtic Junction Arts Center (CJAC) was founded in 2016, with a mission to celebrate, promote, and preserve cultural arts and community. The four arms of the organization are: 

  • Celtic Junction Concert Series which presents local, national, and international traditional music concerts and original theater with Celtic themes
  • Eoin McKiernan Library (EML), an Irish heritage and arts library established with a book bequest from Eoin McKiernan, one of Minnesota’s greatest champions of Irish art and culture
  • Celtic Junction Classes which offers year-round instruction in Irish language and literature, creative writing, drawing, and more
  • Irish Outreach Coalition which brings performances of Irish dance, music, and language to the wider community

CJAC is the nonprofit heart of The Celtic Junction, a brick and mortar building bought in 2009 by Irish immigrant, dancer, and musician Cormac O’Se and his Minnesota-born wife, playwright and theater director Natalie O’Shea, to house local Celtic arts organizations. CJAC’s unifying vision is to fuel the growth of Celtic arts with exceptional programming and connect our evolving community in a central home.

Since 2009, The Celtic Junction been home to three independent arts organizations: O'Shea Irish dance, Center for Irish Music, and Irish Fair of Minnesota. We collaborate with these organizations regularly, and they form the core of the Irish Outreach Coalition.

Other independent arts groups also use The Celtic Junction space including  Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, Loma Mor Set Dance, Out of the Mist Celtic Theatre, and Scottish Highland Dance.

In 2018, CJAC won IrishCentral's Creativity and Arts Award for the Best Irish American Center.