Interested in learning more about socially engaged practice in your field? The organizations and conferences listed below bring together people working to address systemic challenges through art, architecture, and design.
If you are considering attending any of the conferences listed below, or if you would like to suggest additional resources for inclusion on this list, contact the Office for Socially Engaged Practice at samfox-engage@email.wustl.edu.
Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru)
a2ru is a partnership of institutions committed to ensuring the greatest possible institutional support for the full spectrum of arts and arts-integrative research, curricula, programs, and creative practice for the benefit of all students and faculty at research universities and the communities they serve.
The Arts in Society Knowledge Community
The Arts in Society Knowledge Community offers an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of the role of the arts in society. It is a place for critical engagement, examination, and experimentation, developing ideas that connect the arts to their contexts in the world – on stage, in studios and theaters, in classrooms, in museums and galleries, on the streets, and in communities.
Assembly
Assembly is a co-authored social practice conference hosted by Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA faculty, students, alumni, and partners.
Association for Community Design (ACD)
ACD is a network of individuals, organizations, and institutions committed to increasing the capacity of planning and design professions to better serve communities.
Black in Design (BiD)
The Black in Design Conference, organized by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design African American Student Union (GSD AASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Better World by Design
Better World by Design is a student-led initiative at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design that facilitates collaboration between designers, educators, innovators, and students in an annual three-day conference.
Design+Diversity Conference
The Design + Diversity conference explores proactive ways to make the design industry more diverse. This is the only conference that focuses on diversity issues in the design field.
Design Futures Student Leadership Forum
The Design Futures Student Leadership Forum is a five-day, interdisciplinary forum bringing together student leaders from across the country with practitioner- and university-faculty who are hoping to use design as a tool for social equity and positive change.
Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
EDRA is an international, interdisciplinary organization founded by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers that focuses on environmental design research.
HUE Design Summit
HUE Design Summit is organized by a collective of creative individuals who believe that in order for a community to flourish, there must first be a community. The summit is a 2-day virtual experience created for Black designers and developers, bringing curated conversations and workshops to advance in the ever changing world of technology.
Imagining America
The Imagining America consortium brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world.
Open Engagement
Open Engagement is an international conference and platform to support socially engaged art. The conference highlights the work of transdisciplinary artists, activists, students, scholars, community members, and organizations.
Service Design Network
Service Design Network is the global center for recognizing and promoting excellence in the field of service design. Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication, and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers.
Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Network
The SEED Network connects similarly minded members of the general public with designers from the fields of architecture, communication design, industrial design, landscape architecture, urban design, and urban planning who have an interest in community-based design practice.
Structures for Inclusion (SFI)
Hosted by Design Corps, SFI brings together and shares the best ideas and practices reaching those currently un-served by architecture.
Where are the black designers?
An initiative which aims to give a platform to creatives of color by connecting designers, educators, and creative leaders to start a dialogue about change in and out of the design industry.