When: Wednesday February 10, 2010 - Thursday February 10, 2010

Where: The St Bride Foundation, nr Fleet St.

‘Moving forward’: The first joint conference of the National Arts Learning Network (NALN) and the United Kingdom Arts and Design Institutions' Association (ukadia).

February 2010’s conference will see the launch of a new organisation formed from the merger of NALN and ukadia.

NALN has established itself as a significant arts widening participation network over the last four years, and ukadia promotes the key contributions of the specialist colleges to the UK’s world-renowned reputation in the creative and cultural industries.

This conference offers the first opportunity for NALN and ukadia to move forward together, strengthening the voice of the specialist colleges and allowing specialist institutions to work more collaboratively. By its nature the conference hopes to extend opportunities for networking, partnership working and to share good practice on widening participation and other issues pertinent to specialist colleges. Focus will remain on the key issues that continue to be important to both NALN and ukadia.

Day One will look at:

The future development of widening participation in art, design & performing arts in Higher Education.

Day Two will look at:

Prevalent issues facing the specialist arts institutions, in the light of the current socio-economic climate and the impending election year.

Drawing on the expertise of researchers and practioners in the further and higher education sector, the conference will be of interest to anyone working in higher and further education in the arts as well as those with an interest in widening access and increasing diversity.

The programme includes prominent speakers from the creative industries and higher education, including:

• Professor Carole Leathwood, Professor of Education, Institute for Policy Studies in Education (IPSE), London Metropolitan University.
• Dr Paul Goodwin, Associate Fellow, Centre for Urban & Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths & Curator of Cross Cultural Programmes at Tate Britain.
• Steve Besley, Head of Policy, and author of Edexcel's Policy Watch, Pearson/Edexcel.
• Nadia Danhash, Co-Director, InnovationRCA

The conference dinner will take place on Day One, 10th February 2010 at The St Brides Foundation. Special guests include Grayson Perry, Artist & Patron of NALN.

Website: http://www.naln.ac.uk/en/conference/index.cfm