General Information

TransCultural Exchange’s 2025
International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Avenues for Daring

The Deadline for submiting a Proposal to speak at TransCultural Exchange’s 2025
International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Avenues for Daring is now closed.

BELOW IS INFORMATION FOR ACCEPTED CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
(If you are looking for general information about the Conference Schedule or General Information for Conference attendees, please refer to those sub-menus in the left-hand navigation.)

Important note: The bolded items below have deadlines associated with them. Please take special note of those.

IMPORTANT: ONLINE CONTENT

The Conference schedule is now online here.

Your bios are here.

If you are speaking on a panel, your abstract can be found in the left-hand navigation under Presenters -> Bios and -> Abstracts.

If you are not speaking on a panel or are speaking on a panel + serving as a Roundtable Moderator, Workshop Leader, etc., under Schedule (again, in the left-hand navigation), all the talks, roundtables, workshops and other activities are there. Later an Agenda-At-Glance will be created. Note: the title of your presentation will likely be shortened to fit the Agenda-At-Glance format.

If you need us to make any changes, please send this information to msherman.trans[at]gmail.com no later than May 5, 2024 (the first time we will make changes) or September 1, 2024 (the last time we will make changes – unless, of course it is because, for instance, you cannot attend and we need to take you off the schedule).

If at any time, you found a sponsor for your presentation, please let us know. We will gladly add (and link) them on our sponsor acknowledgment URL and note their sponsorship on the schedule.

IMPORTANT: CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

FOR ALL PRESENTERS
If you want to include any videos, images, etc. as part of your presentation, you must send these materials to msherman.trans[at]gmail.com no later than February 15, 2025. Otherwise, you will need to give your presentation without visuals. Please note: This deadline is not flexible. No exceptions will be made. We will send you a reminder of this around Feb. 1, 2025.

IF YOU ARE A PECHA KUCHA PRESENTER
These presentations will be presented in the order that they appear here.

Because these presentations move so quickly and because there are so many of them, you must send any videos, images, etc. that you want to present as part of your Pecha Kucha presentation to msherman.trans[at]gmail.com no later than February 15, 2025. Otherwise, you will need to give your presentation without visuals. Please note: This deadline is not flexible. No exceptions will be made. We will send you a reminder of this around Feb. 1, 2025.

Most Pecha Kucha presenters have also agreed to do a one-hour portfolio review (meeting with 4 artists for 19 minutes + a 1 min. break in between). The schedule for those sessions will appear in the sign-up section (of the registration area of the website) within a few months.

IMPORTANT: PUBLICITY
At TransCultural Exchange’s last Conference in 2022, we interviewed some of the speakers to create a TV show (aired on Boston Neighborhood Network TV and available on our website here.) In this way, artists who could not attend the Conference could have access to some of the content.

Leading up to the 2025 Conference, we would like to produce new TV episodes and Instagram reels to promote your participation in it. I hope this interests you. If so, we will need a quick, one and half minute clip of you, introducing yourself (your name, position, and affiliation) and what you will be speaking about at the Conference. If you look at the project that we did during COVID, Hello World, you will have an idea of what we are looking for.

The clip does not have to be professionally shot; most smartphones nowadays take good enough quality video for this. Please just shoot yourself speaking – again, briefly – with the camera held horizontally. Then send the footage via a free service like wetransfer.com to me. If you send these through as a google drive/attachment, you must use this address: msherman.trans[at]gmail.com (ie, my direct google address). We will also need you to sign a release form, so the TV station knows you grant us the right to show this footage. Ideally, we would like to receive this by May 1 to start editing the clips for airing in the Fall. I can’t guarantee we will have time to format anything for the TV show that we receive after May 5. Again: the release form is only needed if you send a clip for the TV show.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Please note that there is a lot of practical information on the website about accommodations, getting around, restaurants, etc. This information can be found in the left-hand navigation.

FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS
If you need to be in touch with us, please email me directly at msherman.trans[at]gmail.com.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Note: the Call for Proposals for TransCultural Exchange’s 2025 Conference is now closed.

Below is a copy of the call that is now closed.

Deadline for Proposal Submission: February 20, 2024
Conference Committee Decisions Emailed: March 25, 2024
Presenters’ Final Confirmation Due: April 15, 2024
Online Schedule and Conference Registration Announced (no later than): May 5, 2024
Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: Avenues for Daring: March 7-9, 2025

Overview
From March 7 to 9, 2025, TransCultural Exchange invites artists and those who support artists’ work to come together for our 8th International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts’ Avenues for Daring. Join us for this three-day extravaganza, connecting artists around the globe, down the block and across the nation. During this unique global gathering, we will consider our era’s pressing need for diversity, political equity, and climate and social justice. We will do so, while also celebrating the arts’ ability to provide joy, respite, and common ground for dialog. Both here and abroad. We will reach beyond cultural, political and social divides, showcasing programs designed to engage artists with other cultures and disciplines to provide them with the tools, means and inspiration to, in turn, present the wonders and realities of the world to us. We will explore innovative strategies, technologies and working methods for artists to best express today’s challenges. With roundtable discussions, panels, small convenings, workshops, PechaKucha pitches, portfolio reviews, receptions, networking activities, and tours of local attractions, we will promote resources for sharing and new possibilities of caring.

2025 Conference Host: The Foundry, Cambridge Massachusetts

Touted as the ultimate creative space, with a room for fabric arts, housed next to a digitally equipped wood shop, a dance studio, theater, food lab, and numerous spaces for both large-scale and intimate gatherings, The Foundry is Cambridge’s inclusive hub for creative exploration. Nestled alongside MIT, steps from Cambridge’s renowned life science and tech innovators, and only a short subway ride to Harvard Square and Boston, our host of Avenues for Daring could not be more ideally situated. Or more ideally suited for a creative convening. Like the Conference itself, the possibilities for expanding horizons at the Foundry are endless. We are very grateful to the Foundry for lending us its entire space for this event. (Closer to the Conference date, added tours and other area activities will also be announced.)

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 PechaKucha sessions, small workshops, demonstrations or round table discussions 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. Also, single presentations are welcome and are typically grouped thematically with others on a panel.

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 firstly promote such opportunities. For instance, presentations introducing various international residencies and their continued benefits for cultural or interdisciplinary exchange. Or programs that offer practical advice on such topics as funding resources, the use of new and/or sustainable technologies, ways that the arts can promote equity and reconciliation, or other issues related to maintaining a studio practice today. Also of interest, especially given our site, are presentations that address the growing intersections of the arts and climate studies or promote collaboration across disciplines, including technology, medicine, public health, diversity studies, architecture, conservation and engineering.

Acquainting our audiences with opportunities for engagement along with addressing current issues are most highly sought. Below are a few examples:

The changing nature of residencies and other opportunities for exchange.
How to sustain inter-cultural dialog in periods of strife.
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 the arts to promote racial justice and equity.
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.

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
One of the distinct advantages of having the Foundry as our host venue is that it has a built-in dance studio (max 49 people), 4 maker spaces (16 people – 30 people max), and a food lab (max. 10 people), which we are keen to utilize.
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 PowerPoint, video or other short format presentation. These 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 msherman.trans@gmail.com with ‘2025 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), labeled with the presenter’s last, then first name. For instance, Smith_Jane

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 based on 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: February 20, 2024
Conference Committee Decisions Emailed: March 25, 2024
Presenters’ Final Confirmation Due: April 15, 2024
Online Schedule and Conference Registration Announced (no later than): May 5, 2024
Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: Avenues for Daring: March 7-9, 2025

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. One grant of $1000 is available to speakers from Asia, in memory of our late advisory board member Margaret Shiu; and another $1000 grant is available for an artist attendee from outside the U.S. in memory of our former webmaster and collaborator, the late artist, Rudi Punzo. To request any of these funds, 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@transculturalexchange.org.

For more information on how to submit a proposal, please visit:
https://transculturalexchange.org/conference-2025/general-information/

For examples of past proposals and abstracts please visit:
https://transculturalexchange.org/conference-2022/abstracts/

For an overview of the Conference, please visit:
https://transculturalexchange.org/conference-2025/

To sign up to be notified about Conference scholarships and Discount Registration deadlines please go to:
https://transculturalexchange.org/conference-2025/registration/

Other Useful Information
TransCultural Exchange is pleased that The Foundry will be the Conference’s host and site. The Foundry is a self-sustaining center of creativity and collaboration in the Kendall Square neighborhood offering the Cambridge community opportunities in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. At 50,000 square feet with a 4,000 square foot exterior, The Foundry provides space and programs for the arts (visual and performing), crafts, technology, entrepreneurship, workforce education, and community activities. The Foundry helps facilitate access for residents, especially underrepresented communities to the dynamic working and learning environment of Kendall Square. The building also provides office space at market rate and below market rates for businesses and non-profit organizations.

As in the past, the Conference also will include tours and activities throughout the city of Cambridge as well as the neighboring city of 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 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, and Netherland-American Foundation, among many others.

CONFERENCES

General Information