CONFERENCE THEME

"SMART in the Arts"

This years' theme focuses on the rapidly changing technology and academic requirements with STEM creating unique challenges to arts education. Educators across grades, ages, and the arts need to work together to collaborate on issues and opportunities for art’s programs in promoting STEAM in the 21st century.  Proposals should focus on the importance of arts education in this rapidly changing world.  

The arts impact all aspects of modern life. The arts are how humanity makes sense of the world. It is the backdrop that defines the human experience. The Arts create the soundtrack of our lives and the movement that flows throughout time. Visual arts are the buildings and clothes we live in and the transportation that moves us and creates opportunities to explore the universe or challenge the accepted thought.  Performers illustrate the brilliant perspectives in life that make people laugh, cry, and view our surroundings with a sense of awe and wonder. The arts are the past, present, and future of technology, medicine, and venturing beyond our planet.

No longer is education a predictable or solid path. Following the last two years of the pandemic much has changed. Technology and the rapidly changing world demands that education is viewed as a K-20 experience with opportunities for paths not thought of a year ago. No longer is STEM, the focus, but the importance of the creative mind makes the "A" in STEAM more relevant than ever before. “Smart in the Arts” will focus on future opportunities in arts in education.

By educating artists today, where will they take us in the future?

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
To ensure highly engaging and meaningful sessions for conference attendees, ASN invites you to submit a presentation/session proposal for consideration. Prior to completing a submission, please review the following presenter information for our 2022 conference: SMART in the Arts

Interested in Presenting at the ASN 2022 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada? Below is what you need to know to prepare a proposal to present.
 
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
To ensure highly engaging and meaningful sessions for conference attendees, ASN invites you to submit a presentation/session proposal for consideration. Prior to completing a submission, please review the following presenter information for our 2022 conference: Smart in the Arts.  Proposals open January 19, 2022 and close on April 1, 2022.
 
Choose a Session Format
All sessions must fit into one of the following time frame options:
•       90-minute session
•       60-minute session
•       Workshop format (2-3 hours)
 
Choose a Content Pathway
All proposed sessions must fit within an established content pathway (see list below). Please determine which pathway your session best aligns with and select only one content pathway.
 
1.     Emotional/Mental Health & Mindfulness
2.     Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
3.     Leadership
4.         Arts Specific Content
5.     Innovative New Practices
6.     The Student Experience
 
Participation and Engagement
All proposed sessions should actively engage participants in hands-on experiences, collaborative challenges, in-depth discussions, or the development of new ideas and hands-on application.
 
Align your proposal to a Content Pathway
Please select one content pathway to model/design your proposal around. Descriptions of each pathway are detailed below:
 
Emotional/Mental Health & Wellness:  Empowers learners to develop internal resources that give rise to healthy habits and connected relationships.  Do you have specific wellness tools that are simple and incredibly powerful to use in a classroom? Do you have techniques or a program that builds interest in cultivating mindfulness and building stronger, more connected relationships? Have you helped your students to become more self-aware and responsible for making healthy decisions?  Do you have tools and techniques that help students overcome performance anxiety?
 
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI): Diversity is often perceived to be about perspective, representation, tough conversation, and supporting inclusion. Inclusion prompts answers about creating environments conducive to feedback, supporting diversity, and being open. Equity can be described as fairness, sameness, and valuing diversity and inclusion.  Do you have innovative practices that you have put in place?  Have you developed a comprehensive and robust professional development program for staff addressing these topics?  What have you learned from starting this work and what advice can you offer to others?  How are you serving marginalized communities?
 
Leadership:  Sessions in this strand should align with new skills tailored to an environment of urgency, high stakes, and uncertainty—even after the current health crisis is over. For leaders to change and adapt they will  have to:
 
·   Foster adaptation, helping people develop the “next practices” that will enable the organization to thrive in a new world, even as they continue with the best practices necessary for current success.
·   Embrace disequilibrium, keeping people in a state that creates enough discomfort to induce change but not so much that they fight, flee, or freeze.
·   Generate leadership, giving people at all levels of the organization the opportunity to lead experiments that will help it adapt to changing times.
 
Do you have new practices in leadership that have been successful and helped your organization thrive?  How have you embraced disequilibrium in human capital, crisis management, budget and fundraising,  virtual performances, marketing, and safety practices and policies?  Have you successfully adapted a collaborative model of leadership that adapts to changing times?
 
Arts Specific Content-  Do you have some innovative ideas, vibrant and exciting activities, or lessons learned that you can present to colleagues in your arts specific discipline?  Based on feedback from attendees at previous ASN Conferences we are adding this strand to provide content specific sessions to our arts teachers.   Your session will focus on educators  in arts specific content areas (ie: Creative Writing, Theater, Vocal Music, Visual Arts, etc.).

Innovative New Practices:  The past year will have a lasting impact on educational practice moving forward.  Schools will need to become more student-centered and update antiquated curriculum and policies. Do you have an innovative new practice that you are using in your classroom?  Has your institution changed the way in which auditions are handled, how casting for theatrical performances takes place, have you shifted from western centered curriculum to a more diverse curriculum?  Has technology changed your teaching practices and what have you learned that can be shared with other educators?
 
The Student Experience: Description:  The simplest definition of Student Experience is how students perceive interactions with your institution.  These areas could include student networking opportunities, how the arts and academics interact, how the arts promote social change, how your institution nurtures the cultural, political, and artistic interests of your students.  Do you have a unique lesson that you would like to walk fellow educators through so they can replicate your lesson in their institutions?
 
Tips to make your proposal stand out:
Pick a topic that is timely, relevant, thought-provoking, and one that genuinely interests you. What challenges and successes are you witnessing on school campuses and how can those lessons be applied more broadly?
 
·   Be clear and captivating in your title and description. A good title will invite the attendee to join by making the topic and coverage distinct and engaging. Make sure that your description supports the title
·   Proofread and edit what you’ve submitted so reviewers know you’ve taken the time to perfect your submission.
·   Have a captivating lesson for your students- take your peers through this lesson.
 
What criteria are used to review proposals?
Presentation proposals should be timely, carefully considered, and prepared, interactive, and provide resources, takeaways, and action points. To ensure that every participant feels their time spent in workshops is valuable, reviewers will consider some of the following criteria when evaluating presentation proposals:
 
o   Relevance: The proposed session should interface with the felt needs, challenges, and opportunities in today’s schools, organizations, and society.  The session proposal aligns with the conference's overall theme.
o   Approach: The following should be clear: the session description and objectives; how the session adds value to the conference and serves attendees; who the target audience is; what modes of facilitation the presenters will use; and what takeaways participants can expect.
o   Creativity and innovation: The session should bring to bear a new lens or perspective on its topic.
o   Demonstrated expertise: The session should present original research, applied knowledge of (others’) recognized research or theory, models or use of evidence-based practices, personal mastery, and/or reflective practice.
o   Impact: The session should lend itself to professional or personal application. It should be designed to encourage attendees to contemplate follow-up, continued exploration, and action planning on various levels.
 
Proposal Submission Process
All proposals must be submitted via the online Google form by April 15, 2022. All proposals should be completed in full and to the best of the presenter(s) ability.  Notification to presenters that have been selected will be made via email on April 29, 2022.