Join us for an immersive three-day conference focused on the future of arts education. Spend your time exchanging ideas, testing new approaches, and connecting with educators, artists, and advocates from across the country.

You’ll move through specialized KID smART learning tracks, take part in hands-on breakout sessions, and build real connections with local and national leaders shaping the field. Come ready to learn, share, and celebrate the transformative power of the arts in education.

Thanks to Scholarship Sponsor

ARTS & EDUCATION CONFERENCE

The Art of Building Together

June 24th-June 26th, 2026
KID smART Center for Arts & Education
New Orleans

Keynote Speaker

Liz Byron Loya

Author of Art for All: Planning for Variability in the Visual Arts Classroom

Liz Byron Loya is currently a Boston Public School visual art teacher in grades K1–8, with over 10 years of additional experience teaching special education, ESL, middle school math, and reading. Liz brings a strong, practical understanding of Universal Design for Learning, shaped by her experience as a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Choose from 5 different tracks

Each morning, you’ll dive deep into your chosen track's sessions. In the afternoon, you’ll have the opportunity to select any workshop of interest to you.

  • Move beyond theory and into practice. This interactive session demystifies arts integration by showing how the arts can be embedded into everyday classroom instruction. Participants will actively explore creative dramatics as a tool for designing arts-integrated lessons that deepen academic understanding and strengthen social-emotional learning. Walk away with practical strategies, adaptable lesson ideas, and a clearer vision for how arts integration can transform teaching and learning across content areas.

  • Spark curiosity and deepen learning by integrating science, literacy, and the visual and performing arts through students’ natural sense of wonder. This dynamic session models inquiry-driven learning that begins with powerful questions rather than predetermined answers. Participants will experience concrete thinking routines, creative science strategies, and innovative ways to bring poetry and complex texts into science instruction. You’ll gain a clear, adaptable process for scaffolding arts- and science-based projects across grade levels. All activities are classroom-ready and drawn from Engage: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning.

  • What happens when accessibility, arts integration, and creative practice come together? Art for ALL is designed specifically for educators and staff working in alternative settings. Participants will examine disability justice, Universal Design for Learning, and how ableism can surface in classroomsβ€”while actively exploring inclusive approaches to arts-integrated instruction. This is not a sit-and-get experience. Together, we will collaborate, problem solve, and make art that centers accessibility, student autonomy, and meaningful connectionβ€”building tools, relationships, and inspiration that carry forward into practice.

  • What if social studies helped students see themselvesβ€”and each otherβ€”as essential members of their communities? This interactive session explores how a community-informed, arts-based social studies curriculum can foster empathy, cooperation, self-confidence, and respect for difference. Participants will engage in creative strategies that support students’ social-emotional growth while deepening their understanding of identity, belonging, and interdependence. Discover practical approaches that help young people feel seen, valued, and empowered in the world they are navigating right now. Join us to explore how social studies can shape not just informed students, but compassionate humans.

  • What happens when creativity leads scientific inquiry? This dynamic workshop invites educators to reimagine STEM learning by intentionally centering the arts. Through hands-on exploration, visual artmaking, and dramatic play, participants will experience arts-integrated strategies that deepen understanding of climate, interdependence, and environmental impact. Grounded in inquiry-based learning, this session offers practical approaches for engaging students in meaningful, cross-disciplinary explorationβ€”from the global to the local.

Become A Sponsor

Your sponsorship connects you with passionate education advocates while supporting the future of joyful, arts-rich learning.