The International Journal of Art & Design Education invites you to join us for our 14th annual conference. Inspired by the concurrent exhibition by Emma Talbot, this year’s conference explores the theme ‘Ecologies’.
Ecologists seek to explain the relationship between humans and their environment. The ecologies of an art and design classroom encompass constellations of behaviours, personalities, curriculum, pedagogies, and assessment practices, while interconnected challenges to funding, resources and subject expertise threaten ecological collapse in some sectors of arts education.
In the theoretical field, ecological thinking can open up the relations between art and education, schooling and the creative economy, or the dynamics that define art, craft, and design disciplines.
Exploration of the interplay between students’ lived experience, contemporary art practices, or the political intent of policymakers could help to define new, more inclusive models for artistic education.
Understanding of disciplinary conventions in drawing or the plastic arts, and their interaction with new posthuman technologies, may point to probable or preferable futures for art education.
Paradigmatically, as the fragile ecologies that govern our natural world are threatened by human activity, and post-truth diplomacy tests the social contract, what role does the art classroom play in climate justice, and civic equity?
The conference programme features keynote speakers and breakout sessions, where colleagues in the field of art and design education will share their research framed through the lens of the conference theme. Please visit the conference website for more information.
Lunch and refreshments are included.
Image credit: Untitled by Dr Rachel Payne (2025).
