General Information

January 2023 Announcement
The Call for Conference Proposals is now closed. Please join our newsletter to be the first to hear of our next call.

September 29, 2022 Email
Once again thank you for agreeing to speak at TransCultural Exchange’s 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future.

This email has many important details about the Conference, so please look it over carefully and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

DATES/LOCATIONS:
The Conference dates are Friday, November 4 – Sunday, November 6. Most of the activities will take place at the Colleges of the Fenway. The Colleges of the Fenway are a consortium of universities located within walking distance of one another (and within walking distance of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Both these museums are participating in the Conference.) Most of the events will be at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), Emmanuel College and Wentworth University. On the top of both the Conference overview page and the Conference full schedule is the complete list of all the venues with a map. More detailed maps (with room locations and the location of cafes for lunches, etc.) will also be posted there later and in the Conference brochures in your registration packets.

ABOUT YOUR TALKS:
Please check the full Conference Schedule online (available in the left-hand navigation under Schedule) to note the time and location of your presentation.

Note: Room locations – not presentation times – are still in flux. Some talks may need to be moved in the next week. I, therefore, suggest you also double check your room location 1-2 weeks before the Conference’s start. There will be no additional changes after October 15.

Panel presentation should be approximately 15 minutes long to allow time for everyone to speak and for questions and answers. (Your moderator will also be in touch with you separately to introduce themselves to you and provide any further details specific to your panel.)
Pecha Kucha presentations should be no more than 3 minutes long. The presentations will be given in the order that they are listed on the Conference website. (See Pecha Kuchas in the left-hand navigation under Schedule.)
If you are doing Portfolio Reviews, you are expected to do 6, 20-minute reviews for a total of 2 hours. The times and schedule for those are here.
Round Tables are meant to be one-hour discussions and should be presented as a conversation, meaning that the person presenting should just briefly introduce their work and topic and then help facilitate a discussion among all the participants. We will try to have A/V in all the round table rooms but cannot guarantee this. Please plan accordingly. The Roundtable rooms and times are noted on the schedule and under Roundtables in the left-hand navigation under Schedule.
Workshops (unless noted otherwise) are to run one-hour. The rooms and times are noted on the schedule and under Workshops in the lefthand navigation under Schedule.

ABOUT A/V:
If you want to show a PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi or Keynote presentation; images (PDF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, any Adobe file); or videos (MP4, WebM, MOV, WMF, FLV, AVI) during your presentation, please have those on a USB/Flash drive (also called thumb drive or memory stick) to give to the people handling AV for your panel or Pecha Kucha. (If your presentation is in a format not listed in the last sentence, please check with me.) For panelists, please label these with your last names. These should be given to AV people in the 15-minute time period between the panels. A volunteer can direct you to the AV booth. For Pecha Kucha presenters, please label them with the first word of your talk as it appears here and please bring those to Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Watson Auditorium between 9:15am and 9:30am on Saturday, the 5th. Because of the number of Pecha Kuchas, these MUST arrive by 9:30am.

ABOUT REGISTRATION AND SPECIAL EVENTS:
As I mentioned before, we will register you for the full conference and the Saturday night gala dinner. Do not register for these. (The Saturday dinner will be buffet with multiple options for food, all labeled with various possible allergens.) If you want to attend any of the limited participant tours or workshops, these are free but you need to sign up immediately for those to ensure there is room for you. The sign-up sheets are listed under Tours and Workshops under Schedule (in the left-hand navigation of any of the Conference pages). The exception to this is ALIPH’s talk about their efforts to protect the cultural heritage of Ukraine at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Friday from 2:00- 3:00 pm. This auditorium for this talk is huge; but the MFA asks that you please register here to attend. If you want to go to this talk as a group, meet at the Conference registration desk at 1:30pm on Friday and a volunteer will take you over or you can go over to the MFA on your own. Your choice.

ABOUT ACCOMMODATIONS:
If you plan to stay at a hotel during the Conference, you should book that as soon as possible. We have listed some and noted those that are offering our attendees a discount under 2022 Conference >Practical Information > Accommodations. Those discounts will go fast and, sadly, hotels in Boston are stupidly expensive.

MISCELLANEOUS:
On the website under 2022 Conference>Practical Information you will find details on:

Sites of interests, restaurants and the Official Visitors Guide to Boston under Getting Around (Note: all of the Conference locations have cafes, and we will have coffee in the mornings where the registration tables are at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.) Also a quirk about Boston: Restaurants typically close at 10 pm.
Getting from the Airport, under Travel.
Maps, as noted, are available online on a link at the top of the Full Schedule.

WEATHER:
For those of you who have never been in Boston, please note that the weather starts to turn cold in November (although with climate change that has been hard to predict). It is very unlikely that there will be snow so early, but it can be chilly. I suggest you bring a coat.

ARRIVAL/THE FIRST DAY:
You can pick up your Conference badge and registration materials on any of the Conference days (between 9 am and 5 pm) at the Conference Registration desk, located in the lobby of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Let the volunteers know that you are a presenter. They will have a separate registration area for you. (We will have lots of volunteers to help you. They will be easy to spot. They will have t-shirts with TransCultural Exchange’s logo on them.)

For WiFi Access at the Conference: If you have eduroam, that network will work at all the Colleges of the Fenway. Otherwise, there will be notices for how to log into the various Wi-Fi networks at the Conference site.

IMPORTANT:
If you are arriving from outside the U.S., you will need to have with you the address of where you are staying to get through customs. Please remember to bring that with you. In case something urgent comes up, you can always call or text me at +1 617 413 0967 or ask one of the volunteers to find me. (+16174130967 is also my whats app number.) Thank you again for agreeing to present at the 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future. Please encourage others to join us. We hope to make this our largest gathering yet.

We look very much forward to meeting you in November!

My very best wishes,
Mary Sherman and all of us at TransCultural Exchange

Previous Email

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SPEAKERS
Please check your bio, abstract and the panel, workshop or talk where we have placed you on the Conference schedule. If there are any corrections that need to be made, please email conference(at)transculturalexchange.org, subject line: Correction and let us know. In the Call for Proposals below, you will find the information about the format of each type of presentation. Continued updates will be sent prior to the Conference, but, as always, feel free to email if you have any questions or concerns.

Once again thank you for agreeing to speak at TransCultural Exchange’s 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future.

As it looks like travel to most places and in-person gatherings are resuming, we are planning that our Conference will be able to take place November 4th- 6th in person. (Obviously, if some new pandemic occurs, we will have to reconsider; but, at the moment, we are hopeful that we will be able to welcome you here in Boston this fall. At the same time, we are aware that some countries still have travel restrictions. For those of you in those countries, please be in touch with us and, together, we hope that we can figure out a workaround.)

Please check your bio, abstract and the panel, workshop or talk where we have placed you on the Conference schedule. If there are any corrections that need to be made, please email conference(at)transculturalexchange.org, subject line: Correction and let us know. In the Call for Proposals below, you will find the information about the format of each type of presentation. Continued updates will be sent prior to the Conference, but, as always, feel free to email if you have any questions or concerns.

Most of the activities will take place at the Colleges of the Fenway (which is a consortium of 5 colleges located within walking distance from one another and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Frederick Douglass Square Historic District). Later in the summer, on the top of the online schedule, there will be a complete list of all the venues with maps. Also, by then, the exact location and room where each activity will take place will be posted. (We will also have a lot of volunteers who can help guide you places. They will be wearing TransCultural Exchange Staff t-shirts so they will be easy to spot.)

A few other things to let you know: On the website under Practical Information, you will find details on:

General information about Boston
Getting from the Airport to the Conference site (Note: If you would like to have someone meet you at the airport and accompany you to your hotel or other accommodations, please let me know and we would be happy to arrange a volunteer to meet you.)
Getting around Town (There you will find a number of restaurants and shops. Also, all the schools where the Conference will take place have cafes and we will have coffee and pastries available in the mornings.)
Accommodations with a list of hotels in the area. (Please note: Sadly, hotels are expensive in Boston and book quickly in the fall. I have listed two at the top who are offering special discounts for our guests.)

For those of you who have never come to Boston, please note that it is usually one of the nicest times of year in the City, but it can sometimes be cold. So, please bring something warm to wear.

Also, please DO NOT register for the Conference or for the Saturday, gala dinner. We will register for you. As a speaker, we are pleased to be able to waive the Conference registration fee for all our speakers and to provide you with a pass to all the evening receptions and gala dinner. (More details on those will follow.)

You will be able pick to up your Conference badge and registration materials on any of the Conference days (between 9 am and 5 pm) at the Conference Registration desk which will be located in the main entrance of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (more commonly referred to as MassArt). Let the volunteers know that you are a presenter. There will be a separate registration area for you.

Thank you again for agreeing to present at the 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future. If we can help you in any way, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Also, for any of you who have received funding from any organization to help you with your presentation here, we would be happy to credit them and include their logo online and in our printed materials. Please just send these things along whenever you would like. We greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts to make such a global gathering possible.

We very much look forward to meeting you in November!

All best wishes,
Mary Sherman and all of us at TransCultural Exchange

Call for Proposals

TransCultural Exchange’s
2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future

Conference Focus: Supporting Working Artists Now

Proposal Deadline: December 1, 2021
Conference Dates: November 4-6, 2022
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Academic Host: Colleges of the Fenway

Important Note: If meeting in-person is unsafe in November 2022, the Conference will be postponed to 2023 with an announcement made to this effect in late Spring of 2022.

Overview
Some of the things that we call art today would barely be recognizable as such a hundred – or even fifty – years ago. More artists are working collaboratively than ever before – sometimes embedded in labs, sometimes exploring new fields of research and technologies and, often, willingly engaging the public in ways never-before imagined. In the arts, as in many fields, diversity, along with climate and social justice are a constant rallying cry. How can we best support these goals? Especially, at a time, when resistance to these ideals are growing, when countries are looking inward, our planet is shrinking and cultural exchange is on the wane.

TransCultural Exchange takes up this challenge with its 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future. During three inspiring days, the Conference will explore ways to support the working practices of artists today within and beyond their disciplines – their pressing needs and challenges. Innovative strategies will be presented and discussed; international programs will showcase their opportunities; new technologies and working methods will be unveiled. Attendees will be encouraged to meet each other by way of roundtable discussions, workshops, Pecha Kucha pitches, portfolio reviews, receptions and tours of local attractions.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals need not conform to traditional panel formats. Papers can be submitted for consideration as individual (15-20 minute) presentations or panel discussions. They can also be submitted as Pecha Kucha sessions, small workshops, demonstrations or round tables on narrower focused topics, such as ones that encourage participants to share new techniques, or teach relevant online tools, archival methods or grant writing skills. The guidelines for each format are listed below, followed by what is required for each proposal.

Papers – Individual and/or Panel Sessions
Papers can be submitted as stand-alone, 15- 20-minute presentations or as 2-hour panel sessions (including time for a question and answer period). Please note that proposals for panel sessions need to include the names and bios of all the panelists.

Scope of Proposal Panel Topics
Given that a key aim of the Conference is to support international exchange among artists and those who support them, the Conference Committee is keenly interested in receiving presentations that promote such opportunities, especially in light of the COVID-19. For instance, speakers might introduce various international residencies and their continued benefits for exchange, offer practical advice (on such topics as funding resources, the use of new and/or sustainable technologies or other issues related to maintaining a studio practice today), address the growing field of social, environmental or political artistic interventions or promote collaboration across disciplines, including medicine, public health, diversity studies, architecture, conservation and engineering.

Presentations on current trends in art and ways to address the new pressures international exchange faces are also encouraged. Below are a few examples:

The changing nature of residencies and other opportunities for exchange
What pandemics like COVID-19 can teach us
How to sustain inter-cultural dialog in periods of social distancing
Responsible exchange and art-making in the face of climate change
Cultural diplomacy in an increasingly nationalized world
Cultural appropriation: The role and responsibilities
Take-aways from how various countries’ support their artists
University art programs as the new Medicis of artistic patronage
The challenges and benefits of artists working across disciplines
Negotiating the studio-to-gallery-to-museum career model
Innovative artist DIY strategies for alternative practices
Ways to re-engage art criticism in the age of selfies and personal blogs
Strategies for greater inclusivity and diversity in the arts
Interactivity and public engagement’s impact on artistic creation
Digitalization’s effect on art production and life experiences
The PhD in the arts and its implications

Although proposals do not have to address one of the themes above, they should address the overall Conference’s aim. (In the past, for instance, proposals on topics by researchers from other fields, wishing to engage with artists, were among the most popular.)

Round Table Discussions
Round Table Discussions that adhere to the Conference theme can be submitted, keeping in mind that these discussions should be limited to 60 minutes and serve approximately 10-25 participants.
Workshops and Demonstrations

A number of small, classroom-sized settings will be available for workshops and demonstrations. (Some examples of this type of programming could be a 3-D printing or water-jet cutting demonstration.)

These proposals must clearly state:

if a workshop or demonstration space is needed;
what the interactive or instructional nature of the demonstration is;
who the target audience is;
what the desired presentation time is. (These sessions can be 30 minutes or 1 – 2 hours long.)

Pecha Kuchas
These 3-minute talks can be treated as a Power Point, video or other short format presentation. They are ideally suited to organizations that serve artists—such as artist-in-residences—to quickly promote/pitch their programs to the Conference’s large number of artist attendees. All Pecha Kucha presenters are also asked to conduct one set of portfolio reviews. (A set consists of six, 20-minute private meetings for questions and answers from an individual artist – for a total of 2 hours.) This gives the attendees a chance to have additional one-on-one time with the presenters.

Submission Requirements
Prospective panelists must submit their proposals to TransCultural Exchange’s Conference Chair by email at conference@transculturalexchange.org with 2022 Conference in the subject line.

Each proposal must include:

The title of the proposal.
The proposal type (single paper, panel discussion, workshop, demonstration or Pecha Kucha presentation).
A one-sentence proposal summary (30-word limit).
A 200-word (maximum) proposal description. This description will serve as the presentation abstract (which may be revised prior to the Conference brochure’s publication).
A short biography for each speaker, noting qualifications and organizational or institutional affiliations. (Biographies must be limited to no more than 150 words.)
A photo(s) of the presenter(s) submitted as a jpeg (300 dpi).

These materials will be used to judge the proposal and—if the proposal is accepted—serve as the online and Conference brochure content for the proposal’s presentation.

All proposals must be submitted in English.

Selection Criteria
The Conference Committee will make its selections on the basis of the proposal’s merit and advancement of the Conference’s stated aims. When similar proposals are submitted, TransCultural Exchange reserves the right to select, in its sole discretion, the panel that best suits the overall needs of the Conference’s goals or to propose a merged panel, combining the components of each proposal. All decisions are final.

Relevant Deadlines
Deadline for Proposal Submission: December 1, 2021
Conference Committee Decisions Emailed: December 30, 2021
Presenters’ Final Confirmation Due: February 15, 2022
Online Schedule and Conference Registration Announced: April 5, 2022
Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future Dates:
November 4-6, 2022

Registration
Conference registration, reception costs and the cost of the gala dinner are waived for all Conference presenters.

Airfare and accommodations are not covered; however, letters of invitation for accepted presenters will be provided to help presenters secure outside funding.

For those speakers who are not affiliated with a college, university, museum or for-profit institution, TransCultural Exchange also offers a limited number of travel grants: Thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Marlene Ghormley, five $800 grants are available to international speakers; and four $250 travel grants, given in memory of TransCultural Exchange’s founding board member Betsy Carpenter, are available to North American presenters. To request such funding, please enclose a statement of need and rationale along with your proposal.
Please note that some U.S. states, such as California, offer professional development grants to arts professionals to attend conferences; and that conference costs are often tax-deductible as professional development fees. Please consult your State or local Arts & Cultural Office or tax adviser for additional information.

Submission Questions? Email conference@transculuralexchange.org.

For more information on how to submit a proposal, please visit
https://www.transculturalexchange.org/2021-conference/general.htm

For examples of past proposals and abstracts please visit:
https://www.transculturalexchange.org/2018-conference/abstracts.htm

For an overview of the Conference, please visit
https://www.transculturalexchange.org/2021-conference/overview.htm

To sign up to be notified about Conference scholarships and Discount Registration deadlines please go to:
https://www.transculturalexchange.org/2021-conference/overview.htm

Other Useful Information:
TransCultural Exchange is pleased that Colleges of the Fenway will be the Conference’s lead Conference host and site for most of the Conference activities. Colleges of the Fenway is a collaborative effort of five neighboring Boston-based colleges in the Fenway area – home also to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – including Emmanuel College, MCPHS University, Simmons University, Wentworth Institute of Technology and the nation’s oldest, and only free-standing, publicly funded art college, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. This collaboration was created to add value to student academic and social life while seeking innovative methods of investing in new services and containing the costs of higher education. Cross-registration between the Colleges of the Fenway enables students to take courses that may not be offered at their home institution, in addition to the chance to access unique academic minors. Collectively, the colleges represent more than 12,000 undergraduate students, comprising 16.2% of the total Boston population of undergraduates attending four-year colleges, more than 700 full-time faculty and 2,300-course offerings.

As in the past, the Conference also will include tours and activities throughout the city of Boston as well as the neighboring city of Cambridge’s institutions, including MIT, Harvard and swissnex Boston.

Why TransCultural Exchange as the Conference Producer:
TransCultural Exchange is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to foster a greater understanding of world cultures through high-quality art projects, cultural exchanges and educational programming, most notably, our International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts. TransCultural Exchange’s three-decades of service in the field of cultural exchange, across various disciplines has resulted in a large and loyal global network, ensuring the success of its projects. These efforts have earned the organization considerable acclaim, support and awards from institutions such as the Northeast Chapter of the International Art Critics Association (AICA), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Massachusetts Cultural Council, Boston Cultural Council, Asian Cultural Council, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Boston Foundation, swissnex Boston, the Netherland-American Foundation, among many others.

CONFERENCES

General Information

Call for Proposals