12 Cities. 100 Portraits. One Unforgettable Journey.
The 100 Cleft Portraits Tour, presented by ACPA, has come to a close.
Over one month and 9,544 miles, 100 original portraits and the personal stories behind them traveled to 12 cities across the country. More than 1,200 people experienced the exhibition in hospitals, museums and community spaces, but the numbers tell only part of the story.
At every stop, we watched people slow down to look, read and connect. Children saw faces that looked a little more like their own. Families met other families with shared experiences. And in city after city, the cleft and craniofacial community showed us just how meaningful it can be to gather around something that celebrates the people at the center of this work.
12 cities. 1,200+ attendees. 9,544 miles traveled.
See the full numbers, including press and social reach, on our recap page.
Seeing yourself represented matters.
Throughout the tour, children found faces that looked like theirs among the 100, parents stopped to read another family’s story, and individuals featured in the exhibition stood beside their own portraits. At several stops, Katie placed finished portraits directly into the hands of the people they belonged to.
One attendee later sent Katie a message that captured it simply: “It made me feel really seen and included.” — Mila, tour attendee
And sometimes, seeing yourself leads to finding each other.
Families and individuals drove for hours and crossed state lines to be there. At stop after stop, people who might never have crossed paths otherwise met one another and found connections that reached far beyond their own hometowns and care teams.
After one stop, a parent wrote: “These connections wouldn’t have been made without this tour.”
The tour also opened space for professional learning. Residents volunteered at tour stops and joined Katie in conversations about communicating with families through surgery, while local hosts built their own workshops around each stop.
This took a community.
Twelve cities were only possible because people across the cleft and craniofacial community said yes; the individuals and families who trusted us with their stories, the ACPA Approved Teams, hospitals, museums and volunteers who made each stop possible, and our national sponsors: Smile Train, myFace, Children’s Mercy Kansas City and the Virginia Toulmin Foundation.
At the center of it all was artist Katie Manning, whose vision began with a simple idea: create positive, beautiful representation of people who just so happen to have been born with a cleft.
The tour may be over. The stories aren’t.
Follow the 100 Cleft Portraits Tour on Instagram for more stories from the road and visit our recap page to see more photos and stats about this incredible tour.
100 portraits. 100 stories. 12 cities. So many reasons to feel seen.
The 100 Cleft Portraits Project is a travelling art and education exhibition featuring 100 drawn and painted portraits of people born with cleft from around the world. More than an exhibition, it is a movement to rehumanize how cleft is seen, spoken about, and experienced.
Hi, I’m Katie – an artist, trauma-informed coach, and mother to a daughter born with bilateral cleft, married to a man born with unilateral cleft. Cleft is not just something I work with; it’s woven into my family.
Each stop on the U.S. tour is intentionally designed to be more than “just an art show.” Every exhibition brings together art, education, and community to create an experience that is immersive, human, and deeply respectful.
