Our GLAD events since 2023, have increasingly highlighted that creative education is essential civic infrastructure, not peripheral to society, but central to cultural, economic and community development. Participants have challenged deficit narratives about art and design education and emphasised how creative practice can advance equity, sustainability, collaboration and future-ready skills. In response, GLAD are doing something a little different in 2026/27!
Instead of a one-off event, GLAD will present a UK-wide series of regional half-day gatherings at HEIs. The series will create a distributed platform for exploration and co-creation under the broad theme of PLACE. This might relate to geography, identity, and belonging; regional ecosystems and institutional cultures; civic roles; studio and field practices; connections between HE and FE; access to opportunity; pedagogies; and the lived realities of staff and students. We are particularly interested in perspectives on the student voice and cultural capital students bring into our programmes and institutions.
We also welcome proposals that question, disrupt, or reframe conventional understandings of PLACE.
By situating these conversations across the UK, the series will recognise diverse regional strengths and local contexts, elevating collective narratives that demonstrate how art schools lead through, for, and with their communities.
