2026 Conference Invitation

Friends,

Please join us for this exciting conference – whether you are new or have come for years!

There are many exciting and unique moments to be experienced at the 2026 ISAIA conference!  For the 125th anniversary of this amazing and specialized conference I have been working hard to make this year wonderful.

The event will take place January 17th in Philadelphia.

By request of those traveling a great distance, the conference is one day for convenience – however there is a landing event the Friday evening prior and an informal meeting after the keynote has ended.  Saturday remains the main event; details are below.

Saturday morning we shall meet at the Barnes Foundation in the heart of Philadelphia. The lower level is a brilliant location for us to meet and provide brief presentations. It is always exciting to share classroom success stories, best practices, recaps of professional development opportunities, and so much more.  The room offers great equipment, complete with a screen in the wall. During the entire morning session there will be a continental buffet with tea and coffee.

While a midday break allows anyone to go anywhere, I strongly suggest everyone take advantage of the newly opened Calder Gardens; The Barnes Foundation has graciously granted ISAIA members access to this brand new respite in the heart of Philadelphia just across the street from the Barnes.  We bring to your attention that the most garden part of Calder Gardens was designed by the same team that designed NYC’s Highline and their plan is for the floral surroundings to be in a constant state of change through the seasons.

The cocktail hour and evenings’ proceedings will take place only a few blocks away at Moore College of Art.  Wine and Beer from local establishments will be offered during the hour before being treated to a buffet dinner served by the caterers that the school employs during the year for such events.  During dessert we will be treated to a keynote presentation.

The Keynote speaker for the 2026 ISAIA conference is my good friend Sheryl Oring.  The scope of her career is too large to briefly discuss in this invitation letter; I will bring to your attention to the most recent - network news coverage of her multi-decade project “I wish to say.” In this performance Sheryl sits publicly in front of a typewriter [dressed to play to role] inviting people to dictate to her what they wish to say to the next president of the United States.  During this past summer there was a lot of people wishing to say a lot of things to the next president, whoever he or she would be.  As for her Creative Capital grant, Venice Pavillion work, numerous public works, and everything else – I leave it to you to google, or better yet come to ISAIA to be in an intimate setting rather than a large crowd and listen to her speak. As an artist-educator like ourselves (recently a Dean at University of the Arts, now she teaches in North Carolina), she speaks both of our languages.

Sheryl is a true coin. Philadelphia is an exciting place to be right now. Moore College is a unique art school with an interesting past and a bright future. The Barnes Foundation has a fantastic collection and still will have Rousseau on exhibit. It is going to be a fantastic conference suite of experiences – with the most treasured moments being those we share!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out,