'Holding Ground' is a one-day online conference exploring continuity, resilience, and the long game of adult education.
The conference will consider the work artist-teachers do to keep going, keep making, keep teaching, and keep communities thriving despite sector pressures, funding precarity, policy shifts, and personal sustainability challenges.
Holding Ground speaks to:
- sustainability (ecological, emotional, professional)
- survival (of practice, identity, community)
- celebration (of what has endured and grown)
- resistance (to erasure, undervaluing, or policy turbulence)
- stewardship (of learners, spaces, and creative cultures)
It is active, hopeful, and rooted in the lived realities of ACL.
Holding Ground suggested sub-themes
Sustaining practice: how artist-teachers maintain creative momentum, wellbeing, and identity over time.
Sustaining pedagogy: teaching approaches that endure, adapt, and remain meaningful in shifting ACL contexts.
Sustaining communities: how artist-teachers nurture belonging, confidence, and continuity for learners.
Sustaining research: practitioner research as a tool for long-term sector growth, legitimacy, and advocacy.
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 an abstract
Key dates
| Abstracts deadline | 22 January 2027 |
| Notification deadline | 5 Febraury 2027 |
| Conference | 20 March 2027 |
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At NSEAD we believe our events should be an inclusive, and accessible experience for all. We expect anyone attending and working at our events to adhere to our code of conduct to ensure a safe and productive environment for everyone. See our full code of conduct.