Welcome to the UCA Creative Education Conference 2026, where we explore the meeting point of the Embodied and the Synthetic in Creative Education.

This year’s theme, Material/Machine, invites educators, makers, academics, technicians, librarians, leaders, policymakers, and students to interrogate the tensions and harmonies between material intelligence and digital automation.
We are rethinking what it means to learn, make, and create in a cross-disciplinary world where physical and digital processes intertwine. How can we design learning environments that honour embodied practice while embracing synthetic innovation? How do we protect authorship and integrity while expanding participation and aesthetic diversity?

Join us for a day of debate, workshops, and demonstrations that surface practical blueprints for creative education’s evolving landscape.