In celebration of a decade of hosting annual Teen Convenings, the ICA Boston will hold an unprecedented national conference, Building Brave Spaces: Mobilizing Teen Arts Education, November 2–4, 2018. This event will be an immersive, three-day forum for collaboration and understanding across institutions, generations, and geographies. Educators and teens from across the nation—and the globe—will assemble and learn together.
As part of our planning, the ICA hosted a national and multi-disciplinary advisory group in the summer of 2017 to help us shape an agenda. This advisory committee for the Teen Arts conference includes professionals, artists, teen arts programs members, and leaders in the museum field. These individuals possess an incredible body of knowledge, and bring distinct perspectives and specialties that make this committee a potent force to craft the Teen conference over the coming months.
Despite their unique contributions, the advisory committee members commonly share a dedication and passion for expanding the field of teen arts education. Their noteworthy accomplishments have fostered inclusion, disrupted institutional inequities, and, as a result, redefined the role of the arts and arts education in the lives of our teenagers. Advisory member interests include domestic poverty, climate change education, confronting institutional power, poetry as social force, exposition of personal-cultural narratives, and ethics of citizen-science—subjects we find critical in this historical moment and essential topics for discussion. Each member’s wide-ranging professional and artistic efforts have served within their communities to mobilize education and integrate the arts as a touchstone of resilient social systems. We couldn’t be more proud—or more grateful—to have them and their guidance on the path to the 2018 Conference.