This year’s National Association for Fine Art Education conference ‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE AN ARTIST: LOCAL, TRANS-LOCAL, GLOBAL’ will take place at Champness Hall, Rochdale on Friday 24th April 2026.
The focus of the conference will be co-operation, conflicts and collective agency in defence of creative and cultural education and placemaking.
We welcome proposals on the following themes:
Space and Place
● How do we define ‘region’ in an era where administrative boundaries, cultural identities and economic geographies no longer align?
● In what ways do place-based practices, geographies and cultural infrastructures contribute to, or challenge, broader ideas of regional or national identity within the arts?
● What is the shape and place of the future campus?
Emerging needs and priorities
● What priority and emerging creative and cultural skills most effectively promote lifelong learning and learner agency?
● What will shape the form of the educational offer and curriculum for Fine and Visual Art practices in terms of pedagogies, adult education and co-operative learning?
● How important is accreditation (i.e. what are the freedoms/restrictions it imposes for students and curriculum planners?)
Partnership and co-operation
● What are the weighted contributions of investors and stakeholders supporting educational initiatives marked as alternative to establishment institutions?
● Who are the private providers of education and lifelong learning that can be trusted to deliver with integrity or in any way enhance the current landscape?
● How can resourcing and facilities be modelled to best enable sustained practices and relevant growth from the activity?
Local, Translocal and Global
● What are the international exemplars for co-operation and where are the potential allies that will help to secure a fairer and more resilient accessible Fine Art ecology?
● Art and art practices are a public and civic good and underpin global citizenship and belonging.
● Why, if we consider the concept of paideia, we have failed to convince decision-makers of the contribution that creative arts make?
You can find our more about the conference here.
Proposals for contributions should be submitted to: admin@nafae.org.uk no later than Friday 13 February 2026. Decisions on contributions for our next NAFAE conference will be communicated to the participants by 27 February 2026.
To submit a proposal for contributions, you must be a NAFAE member. To join NAFAE please visit the membership page.
Invisible Mirrors 