A one-day online conference exploring how artist teachers create, negotiate and sustain space for artistic practice, pedagogy and research within adult community learning.
The conference will consider how space, physical, digital, temporal and conceptual, is made, shared and reimagined to support creative growth, inclusion and professional identity.
Sub-themes:
Making Space for Practice: Exploring how artist-teachers sustain and integrate personal art-making within teaching contexts; balancing creativity, workload, and wellbeing.
Making Space for Pedagogy: Rethinking teaching approaches that foster learner autonomy, inclusivity, and experimentation in adult community learning.
Making Space for Research: Examining practitioner research, reflective inquiry, and arts-based methodologies as tools for professional growth and sector development.
Making Space for Communities: Considering how artist-teachers co-create spaces of belonging and collaboration through socially engaged and community-based practices.
Making Space for Change: Investigating how artist-teachers respond to policy shifts, digital transformation, and social challenges, shaping resilient and responsive learning environments.
This conference welcomes contributions from artist-teachers working in adult and community learning spaces, at all stages of their careers. The conference accepts contributions in several forms including, but not limited to paper presentations, poster presentations, workshops, and arts-based research.
Submit your abstract
Key Dates:
| Abstracts open | 18 November 2025 |
| Abstract deadline | 23 January 2026 |
| Registration closes | 18 March 2026 |
| Conference | 21 March 2026 |
