Celeste A. Bateman started her company, Celeste Bateman & Associates, LLC in 1997. The firm specialized in arts and cultural programming, arts management consulting, special events production, arts advocacy and the Nia Network, a roster of artists and speakers of African descent who specialize in and present art forms relative to the African Diaspora.
Current and/or recent clients include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Crossroads Theatre Company, NewarkBound (DMC Publishing), Newark Symphony Hall, The Newark Public Library, the Newark Arts Council, Connection Newark, Newark Downtown District, Newark School of the Arts, United Way of Essex & West Hudson, First Class Championship Development Center, Center for Education Innovation (MS) and numerous other companies and arts organizations nationally and abroad.
She is now focused on the work of her nonprofit Blue Butterfly Arts & Media, founded in 2022. Prior to starting her business, Ms. Bateman was Cultural Affairs Supervisor for the City of Newark, New Jersey. For the City, she produced concerts, exhibitions, school programs, lectures series, symposia and other public programs for the greater Newark community. Ms. Bateman produced several publications for the Cultural Affairs division, oversaw grants to small and emerging arts organizations, organized community arts tours, served as liaison between the arts community and the City administration and represented the Mayor on several boards and committees. After leaving the City, Ms. Bateman served as interim Executive Director of the Newark Arts Council (now Newark Arts), a non-profit organization that serves the city’s artists and arts organizations, and interim Executive Director of Art House Productions, and eclectic visual and performing arts space in Jersey city (2015).
In 1995 she was one of 10 arts administrators selected nationwide by Americans for the Arts to participate in an arts study tour in Northern Ireland, courtesy the British Council, where they shared ‘war stories’ with fellow arts administrators in a country that, at the time, was enjoying a six-month cease-fire from a tumultuous civil war. Prior to her service with the City of Newark, she was the Program Coordinator at The Newark Museum where she presented over 50 events annually.
Over the years, she has worked with or booked for various organizations such luminaries as Dr. Maya Angelou, Amiri & Amina Baraka, Dr. Tony Brown, Dr. Calvin Butts, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant, Dr. Bernice King, Yolanda King, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, Dr. Alvin Poussant, Randall Robinson, Congressman William Grey; numerous jazz musicians, among them the late jazz violinist Noel Pointer, the late singer Abbey Lincoln, Chico Mendoza; singers Cissy and Whitney Houston, and countless others.
Ms. Bateman received her B.A. in Theatre Arts and Speech from Rutgers University and holds a Masters in Communication Arts from Montclair State University. She is a licensed booking agent and a graduate of the Entrepreneurial Pioneers Initiative, a program of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurial and Economic Development (CUEED) at the Rutgers Business School (2012). She served on the Board of Directors of the Newark Community Economic Development Corp. (2014-2019) and was a Guest Producer for The Newark Public Library for many years until 2020.
Board Member, WBGO-FM Jazz 88 Radio, 1989-1995
Member, Board of Overseers, Governor’s School, 1991-1992
Board Member, Newark Jazz Festival, 1991-1997
Member, Newark Arts Council, 1989-1997
Board Member, Gallman’s Newark Dance Theatre, 1987-1990
Member, Newark Festival of People, 1985-1997
Board Member, African Globe Studios, 1998-2000
Member, Americans for the Arts, 1984-1997
Member, International Black Women’s Congress, 1998-Present
Black Public Relations Society of Greater New York, 1999-2000
Member, National Association for Campus Activities, 2000-2015
Commissioner, Public Arts Commission, City of Newark, NJ, 2004-2009
Advisory Committee Member, Women In Media-Newark, 2011-Present
Board Member, Newark Community Economic Development Corp., 2014-Present
Advisory Council, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 2017-Present
The close of 2002 brought with it a true test of my faith. I spent the end of November and the first three weeks of December in bed with a mysterious ailment. Unable to read, work, drive, or sit up for long periods of time, I lay in bed in despair as family members went about their daily activities.
I sought the services of two Chinese medicine practitioners and the chiropractor I had been seeing over the years for one malady or another. Before things got really bad, I made an appointment with my massage therapist for a deep tissue massage. I found no relief or answers to the strange condition that had taken over my and my life. I decided to go the traditional route and visited my internist who was convinced that I had Bell’s Palsy, but I knew better because my research told me that while Bell’s Palsy is annoying, inconvenient, and embarrassing at worst, it is certainly not as debilitating as my ailment. Eventually my doctor realized that my condition was not improving and checked me into the hospital for extensive tests. (Above: Celeste at age 62, October 2018, Photos by Jamil)
Problems with my eyesight were the first sign that something was wrong. Bouts of blurred vision, which had begun in late October, were getting increasingly worse. I was driving on a highway on my way home from a Sunday afternoon visit in Piscataway, NJ when suddenly everything in front of me morphed into lines of red and white for about four brief but frightening seconds. The next day I noticed my arms and hands were extremely weak. Ultimately, my motor skills began to falter; my speech thickened…my arms and hands rendered useless.
(Pictured: 
Mom Elma Bateman and Sister Felicia Bateman, 2003)
Finally, in December 2002, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. In February 2003, I had surgery to remove my thymus gland which had an invasive thymoma. I was in ‘remission’ for a month or so and looked forward to a cruise I had won from a local radio station when I went into MG crisis in late March. I was unable to chew or swallow. I was hospitalized on March 31 and ended up in intensive care for six weeks. I was on a ventilator, ate through a tube in my nose and suffered three respiratory failures. My family was by my bedside every day – praise God! During my hospital stay, I lost my speaking voice because I was on the ventilator so long. I received a tracheotomy and a feeding tube was inserted in my stomach. I was sent to Kessler Institute in West Orange, NJ where I was in rehabilitation for 10 weeks. After that, I went through 5½ weeks of radiation therapy. It was months before I got my speaking voice back — it’s still not 100% yet.
Thank God, I’m much better now, so many years after my diagnosis. I endured various, hospitalizations, rehabilitations and treatments – immunoglobulin infusions, plasmapheresis, Prednisone, Mestinon and finally Rituxan (Rituximab) traditionally prescribed for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, which actually seemed to help. The love of my family and friends is what sustained me through this difficult ordeal. I had heretofore been a tenacious, independent person with clients, colleagues, and family members depending on my strength. I was of little or no use to them in my condition but was buoyed by the fact that my family and friends were there for me with loving support every step of the way.
GOOD HEALTH is one of our most important commodities. Without it, there is little else we can accomplish. We owe it to ourselves and our family members to take care of ourselves, to eat right, exercise, and maintain peaceful order in mind, body, and spirit.
FAMILY MEMBERS AND GOOD FRIENDS matter more than clients, your stockbroker, and others for whom your wellbeing is of secondary concern. Thank your friends and family members often for their love and do not take them for granted.
My journey took me from illness to remembrance – restoring hope, reminding me of what is really important in my life, and renewing my faith.
View Celeste Bateman’s Photo gallery which showcases over 30 Years of Promoting, Celebrating and Advocating for the Arts, Creativity and Cultural Diversity
View Gallery
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask us through our contact form or directly via phone or email. We will respond shortly.
Celeste Bateman & Associates LLC
(973) 705-8253
celestebatemanagency@gmail.com
P.O. Box 4071 | Newark, NJ 07114
