The 14th International Journal of Art and Design Education Conference
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Welcome to the iJADE Conference, which will be exploring the theme 'Ecologies'. The 2025 conference will have a hybrid format, with one online day and one in-person day in Bristol with our host institution, UWE:
Thursday 6 November 2025 | Online
Saturday 8 November 2025 | Arnolfini, UWE Bristol
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Book now
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Artists work at the messy frontier of drafting relations. Artists make connections that previously weren’t there, between humans and nonhumans, between disciplines, geographies, media and the senses, to go beyond the descriptive and representational towards new relations and somatics. And since relations are ecological, art is ecological.
- Stefanie Hessler, Director, Swiss Institute
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?
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Abstract submissions
Talbot explores our relationship with the natural and technological world, weaving together themes of ‘rebirth, transformation, sustainability and human resilience amid systemic ecological collapse.
- Arnolfini, Bristol’s International Centre for the Arts
Inspired by the concurrent exhibition of works by artist Emma Talbot at the conference venue, Arnolfini, the conference call for papers invites submissions from colleagues in art and design pedagogy, gallery education, working in creative education at any level, formal or otherwise, students and researchers in the field, and those working in related disciplines to reflect on the ecologies of art and design education.
For more information, please see the full conference theme and call for papers.
Please submit an abstract of 200 words (max) by 31 July 2025, suggesting how your work links to the main conference theme: forms.office.com/e/HvZqu5BcMU
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Conference registration
Early Bird registration (until 31 July 2025)
• Early Bird online-only ticket: £53.00
• Early Bird full conference* ticket: £145.00
Standard registration (1 August - 17 October 2025)
• Standard online-only ticket: £60.00
• Standard full conference* ticket: £170.00
NSEAD member discount and concessionary rates:
Discounted rates are available for members of NSEAD, and staff and students at the host institution (UWE), pricing between £43.00 - £130.00 for early bird registration and £50.00 - £155.00 for standard registration. Please see the booking page for more information and full registration and fee details.
* Full conference ticket includes online attendance on Thursday 6 November, and/or access to recordings, and in-person attendance on Saturday 8 November.
Book your place now.
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For any enquiries regarding the conference, please contact the team at [javascript protected email address] and we will be happy to help.
Image: Untitled by Dr Rachel Payne (2025)
