2026 Winter Art Ed NOW Conference Preview with Jen Leban (Ep. 502)

In this episode, Jen Leban returns to the show to talk with Tim Bogatz about the upcoming Art Ed NOW Conference and what’s new inside the Art of Education Community. Together, they share their excitement about creating connections, building meaningful relationships, and giving art teachers space to learn and recharge, all of which will happen this weekend at Art Ed NOW.

Jen previews several conference highlights, including the opportunities for connection, conversation, and community-building. They discuss why it’s essential for art teachers to take care of themselves, prioritize well-being, and make time for their own creativity.

Full episode transcript below.

Resources and Links

• • Join the Art of Ed Community
  • Learn more about the Art Ed NOW Conference!
  • Check out Austin Kleon’s work before the keynote

Transcript

Tim:

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for our teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

Welcome to the week of the Art Ed Now Conference. are very, very excited to look forward to the conference this weekend. Jen Leban is going to join me today to talk about everything that we’re looking forward to, everything that’s going on in the community, and what we can get out of both the community and the conference in the coming weeks. Because for all of us right now, it’s a really, really difficult time.

With everything going on in teaching, everything going on in your classroom, everything going on in the world. You are juggling a lot. Hey, but we are hoping that this conference is showing up at the right time for you. And we’re hoping that Art Ed NOW is not just another PD event, but what we’re going for, what we’re hoping that you’re a part of is a gathering of art teachers who really get it.

And it is three days of inspiration and creativity and laughter and real talk just all wrapped up into one really energizing weekend. So whether you’re coming live Friday, Saturday, both days, joining the chat or, just catching things in the after past, catching things in the coming week, we’re hoping that there’s something that helps you connect, that helps you realize that being in a shared space with thousands of other art educators can really validate you and help you share what you love with the job that you love. And I think one of the things that makes this conference special is how connected we all are. You know, we have the tie-ins to the Art of Ed community. We have the presenters that are familiar faces, familiar names.

and people you’ve been connecting with online. And we’re all kind of showing up together. We’re all kind of meeting at the time when we really need it most. So today on this podcast, like I said, Jen Lieben is here. We’re gonna dive into what makes Art Ed Now so inspiring from the kickoff event to the main event, to the after pass, the art making sessions, the mindfulness, the big ideas about creativity and teaching, and how we tie it all together. And we will talk about why this conference is so much fun and why you should be a part of it. Let me bring on Jen now.

Jen Leban, welcome back to the show. How are you?

Jen:

I’m doing great, how are you?

Tim:

I am doing great as well. It is the week of the conference, so I’m a little stressed out. But I’m way more excited that I am stressed out. It’s all gonna come together. It’s all gonna be great. So I’m looking forward to all of it. It should be fun. Before we talk about Art Ed now though, I would love to chat about my favorite place to hang out, the Art of Ed community. That is your domain. That is where you are in charge. How are things going there?

What kind of fun things are happening? What kind of exciting things are coming up?

Jen:

Well, January is a really fun time in the community because people tend to come, you know, they’re coming back from their winter break, know, kind of slump, so ready, re-energized, ready to start things new. We do have a couple of new events coming up. First of all, February 5th Art Club, we have Caitlin Eddington of

our favorite art aprons and sketchbooks and sketchbook cases, she is coming and she’s going to be giving away sketchbooks and cases and she’s going to talk, I know she’s going to talk about like working in your sketchbook, which is admittedly something that I need to do more of and kind of let go that self-consciousness. So I know she’s going to talk a lot about that. So I’m, I’m pretty psyched even for my own personal reasons, but I think it’ll be great.

Tim:

Yes.

Well, can I just say I got a Quell apron just for the conference and it’s supposed to be delivered today, like as we’re recording this, and I’m really, really excited, hoping I can bring it to the conference with me. Now that should be good. Anything else fun going on that people should check?

Jen:

Yes, that is so exciting.

Well, we do have another thing starting that I haven’t even announced in the community yet, but we sort of hinted at because we, yeah, because we, yes, breaking news. We did a survey. So I think people sort of know we’re planning on doing some lunchtime sessions starting in February, like a couple of times a month, like during lunch hour-ish. Granted, the problem is it won’t work for everybody, but it will be recorded.

Tim:

Breaking news.

Jen:

So people can listen back to it, just like a little 30-minute hangout, an eat-your-lunch session, so that if you are in your room, you know, working, you can have us on in the background. And if you want to sit and take a break and watch, you can do that too. There’s like a chat box, you can like chat with us, but it’s very flexible, like low pressure, just kind of like having friends to hang out with at lunchtime. So lunch, lunch bunch. Yeah, yeah. Well, I believe you said you’re gonna eat lunch with me one day, Tim, right? Okay.

Tim:

I’m in. I’m in. Just let me know when. No, I think that’s perfect for the people who want some connection but hate the teacher’s lounge. Right? Like, that’s perfect for it. I don’t know. I may be projecting that may be an issue that just I have. I can’t be the only one.

Jen:

Yay!

Jen:

Yes, that’s 100%. Yeah.

Then we both are projecting. No, you’re not.

Tim:

Cool, now that sounds really cool. I’m looking forward to being a part of that too. But also, what I’m most excited about, as I said, was the Art of Now conference coming up this week. And just from, I guess, a big picture view, I wanna ask you, what you’re looking forward to? Because you’ve been with us for a bit, helping out a lot. I mean, you’ve presented for…

years of the conference, but now you’ve been like an integral part of putting this on. But for you, like what are you looking forward to with the conference?

Jen:

Yeah. I mean, personally, very selfishly personally, my favorite thing is that we get to get together in real life. So you and me and Amanda, like in person and that’s, it’s always very fun. Just having a, you know, there. But I also like getting to see people I know, like see people I know, cause I’ll see people’s names in the chat and I’ll recognize people from the community or somebody wins, you know, a giveaway at the NOW Conference. And I’m like, my gosh, I know that person. Like I feel.

Tim:

Yeah, I knew that!

Jen:

I feel personally invested. Yes, so I love that. I love seeing the people that I know win things or even just in the chat knowing that it’s helpful, they’re learning something new, or they’re getting ideas. It’s fun. It’s virtual networking, but it’s networking. I’m not a super social person, but this is a format that I can really get down with. Yeah.

Tim:

Okay, I like it. I like it. No, I think that’s fun. We’ve talked all month on the podcast about connections and that looks different for all different people. And that’s the way that you connect. That’s perfect. And that’s what we want to provide. So I think that’s really cool. Now, Friday night, we have the kickoff a lot of

Jen:

Yeah.

Tim:

Really, really fun stuff is happening. I’m gonna put you on the spot now. We have our Framed Competition, a take off on Chopped if anybody watches the show Chopped. They do their cooking competition show. This is an art making competition show inspired by our YouTube series from the Art Event. We have three contestants and Jen, as I said, I’m putting on the spot. Who is your favorite to win?

And we have Chris Hodge, have Jen Russell, have Jessica Stuever. Who do you think should be the odds on favorite to take home the trophy?

Jen:

So I was very mad when I heard you were gonna ask me this because I was like, this is like choosing a favorite child. You can’t put me on the spot like that. But okay, I thought about it. So Hodge is my local bestie. We’re in like the same area. So that’s cool. Jen Russell and I, we’re like name sisters, because we’re both Jen’s, you know? But Jess Stover is my community bestie. She’s always around in the community. In fact, she just earned a 365 login streak.

Tim:

I don’t know. I don’t know.

Yeah.

She did, yes, yes.

Jen:

Bad, I know. Which is crazy because like I earned mine but like that’s my full-time job. So I was like, I felt like, I still feel like if anyone gets a longer streak than me, like I am shamed forever. I can’t let that happen like because I’m the one in charge. I should have the longest streak. I don’t know Jess has given me a lot of anxiety but I think for that reason I might have to give her the edge. Although I love them all. Love them all.

Tim:

Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. I mean, that’s why we’re having those three do it. Like, they’re all amazing teachers.

Jen:

She’s hardcore, man.

Tim:

Yeah, they’re going to be wonderful competitors and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So looking forward to that. Now the other part of Friday night, aside from the competition is a chance for everybody to do some art making. You’re hosting the art making session for elementary teachers. And I know that is about mindfulness and collage. You’re doing that with Sarah Kriesky and great opportunity. But I want to ask you, why do you think it’s important for people to kind of take some time, take an hour out of their evening to create, make art for themselves.

Jen:

I think that honestly, and maybe I’m speaking too much of myself here, but we feel so much pressure to like always be busy and always be working and always be doing something. And like, we don’t remember to relax. And I think taking that time to create, even if it’s in the form of like, I paid for this conference and therefore I should get my money’s worth and go to the, like, it’s a good way to kind of force yourself to like do it. But ultimately like you’re benefiting yourself and you’re helping yourself.

Tim:

Yeah.

Jen:

I feel that way about like pop-up studio also when we have those events in the community. It’s like an hour you can block off in your calendar and tell, you know, your significant others like, I have a meeting that I have to go to, but you’ve done yourself a favor. So I think that that’s, you know, because it does, it helps to diffuse all the, I don’t know, all the feelings and the nerves and wash the day away, if that makes sense.

Tim:

Yes, it does. I love drawing late at night. And so being able to do that at the end of the kickoff, I think is really, really good for people. So I would agree with you there. Now, I also am looking forward to hearing and letting everybody hear from Austin Kleon. I really enjoyed interviewing him going down to Texas to do that interview. I’ve talked about that on the podcast as well.

Jen:

Yes.

Tim:

Are you familiar with him? Like, are you looking forward to in his talk as the featured presenter?

Jen:

So I knew of Austin Kleon, like I’ve kind of seen the books everywhere, but I actually, recently did read Steal Like an Artist. And it made me think about teaching and it made me think about like where we get our ideas from. And it gave me a lot of what’s the word I’m looking for. It reminded me of like the golden ages of Twitter. What is, what am I thinking of? Memories.

Tim:

I don’t know, the halcyon days of Twitter? I don’t know.

Jen:

Yeah, like nostalgia. That’s what I’m thinking of, nostalgia. It made me feel very nostalgic. Like when Twitter started, all the teachers on there, they would just post pictures like from their classroom of things that were going on. And I could just get this little glimpse in their classrooms and I would get these ideas and like sparks for new projects. Like, and we were limited in our character count on Twitter. So it’s not like people were like, yeah, they were. Yeah. No. So you weren’t posting like whole lesson plans or anything and,

Tim:

Yeah, you only have 140 characters. You can’t do full explanations.

Jen:

It was just a picture and you would have to take that, you know, that picture, that image or that description, like, you know, we, we drew dream cars, you and you’re like, well, what does that mean? You had to like invent that in your head. So I love that it was a way of forcing yourself to be creative. And I would see something that go, this looks cool. How can I backwards engineer that to make something similar that works for my kids? And like kind of I’ve always worked that way, like as a teacher, like I’m not a fan of like canned curriculums. They tell you what to say and what to do. I’ve always wanted that. Like if someone gave me a worksheet, I would have to like redo it because it like needed to be like for me or for my kids, you know, like fix it or it’s a funky font or something. not to get too tangente, but that is why I actually do like flexes like a curriculum because they do it’s it’s flexible and they give you, you know, ways that you can kind of customize it and make it, you know, make it yours.

I don’t know, discovering and finding ideas. This is why I still like Pinterest because I like to just find ideas and it’s just always been a part of the way that I’ve created. So I think it really resonated with me because that’s the way that I work. And I know not everybody works that way and that’s not everybody. So therefore I think I should now write my own book called Teach Like an Artist. And I was wondering if you would like to be my first investor, Tim, I’ll cut you a deal.

Tim:

Okay, I like the inspiration. No, I think it’s good because it’s important to think about what we connect with and what inspires us. And obviously, you know, you’re doing reflecting and figuring out what is important to you and how you teach and how you can best connect with your kids. And so I think all of those thoughts are really worthwhile. And if we can get people doing that during the conference, and that would be awesome. And I would 100 % support your book.

So, beyond Austin Kleon and teaching inspiration, what else are you looking forward to? Or like, what should people look forward to? What can they do or what should they do during the conference weekend?

Jen:

Well, I mean, I was looking at the lineup of all the sessions and it’s hard to say, like, there are people that I know personally, so I’m always looking forward to theirs. But it’s the same thing, like where I was talking about Twitter and like how you used to give me all these ideas. That’s what ArtEd Now does for me too. As I’m watching all of these presentations, I might not want to take something word for word or a project exactly the way someone does it. It just gives me these ideas. So one of the things Austin Kleon says in his book is to keep a morgue file. And of course, I love that name because morgue file, hey, it’s goth. But yeah, yeah. Well, he said he said a place to keep ideas until they’re ready to be reanimated. So I’m like, yes, that’s that’s for me. So during the now conference, you can add to your morgue file by getting ideas and writing them down. And it made me think about using your sketchbook and like what I said earlier about Caitlin coming to art club and talking about using your sketch and that that

Tim:

I was going to say that has to resonate with you.

Jen:

practice, I think that it would be great to have your sketchbook out during the conference, write down those ideas. So sometimes words, sometimes sketches, sometimes, you know, just, I don’t know, pasting in a weird picture, you know, you’re working on something during the kickoff, maybe come back to it and use that as the base for your notes during the NOW conference. Like it, it feels wrong to me to like work backwards in my sketchbook or find other pages, but I’m like, why, why is that? Why?

We should just be able to do that. We should just be able to collect it all in one place. And you know what? It’s my sketchbook. There’s no rules, but it’s so hard for me to remember that. I know.

Tim:

Yeah, absolutely.

You can do whatever you want.

Jen:

Go figure.

Tim:

Yeah, other thoughts, other ideas for the conference or ways to take away the ideas that you’re seeing?

Jen:

Well, so the last thing that I actually saw in Austin Kleon’s book, he was talking about digital versus analog worlds. And there’s a lot of talk about analog mags nowadays in physical media. And he specifically talks about how we need the analog in order to create. And he has two desks and everything. And then in the community, I even see it lately, there was a message shared recently that was less screens, more hands-on. It’s just…

Tim:

Yes. Yes.

Jen:

It’s a trend right now, but it’s not like it’s a good trend, I think. So here’s where it gets interesting because I’m doing a now presentation and my presentation is on digital art, you guys. So I feel like I need to explain, like I recorded this a long time ago, but also what I am talking about isn’t just digital art. Like I think there’s a place for everything. I am obviously, I’m a fan of technology.

run a technology community platform as my job. I do love it. I’m a nerd. But I see the benefit of both. in my presentation, plug for me, stay till the end. My presentation’s at the end there. Hang out. I’m specifically discussing drawing tools and tablets, which

is analog drawing, it’s just on a screen. Like there’s a digital component or digital tool, the medium’s different, but the hands on this really isn’t different. You’re still drawing with the pen. It’s still your hand making that mark. And I just hope that people will be open to that idea because it seems like there’s just an outright rejection when it comes to not just tech, but like, especially if somebody mentions AI, they’re like, and they shut down. I just I guess a little a little bit of, I don’t know, empathy for tech nerd teachers like me.

Jen:

Yeah, well, I think it’s uplifting because a lot of art teachers don’t have a lot of art specific art focused PD and art now is very much that. So it’s something that you love. And when you get to do something that you love, then the task, you know, or the activity, it doesn’t I don’t know, in my opinion, it doesn’t feel as hard because it’s something you enjoy doing. It’s something you get to do and not something you have to do. And the conference helps to remind you why you love doing what you do.

So therefore, going to the Art Ed conference makes going to school the following Monday feel less hard. So I’m going to say that you go on the weekend, you’re like, we get that little bit of boost, you know, of a boost of joy. And then I’m going to go back to what I’ve kind of been saying before, but like ideas like going to the Art Ed Now conference. It’s inspiring because it gives you those ideas, the little nuggets and like think things that you might not think you’re going to learn about, but that like come up just in the conversation or in the presentation, for example.

You might watch my presentation and think you’re going to learn about using a drawing tablet, but instead you could see an example that I’m doing on a computer that maybe sets off a whole series of ideas, like themes or lessons that you might use later in printmaking or in a ceramics class. You just don’t know when the inspiration could strike or what would cause it to go off. So just opening yourself up to that experience and going to the conference, it just opens you up to those ideas. So that’s…

That’s what happens to me at conferences, like even like the in-person conferences that I’ll like go to things and might like, I don’t know what to expect. And I’ll learn like some random little tidbit that I’m like, that’s the nugget that had nothing to do with the title, but like is so useful to me. So that’s it’s the unknown. Yeah.

Jen:

And in the community, we have a space just dedicated to conference discussions. And of course, at this time of the year, like this week, very much the conversation is all around Art Ed now. So I have been posting once a week, like little sneak peeks and looking into things. But I know the week of the conference, we try to even up that even more. Maybe we’ll be able to get you and Amanda to give us some sneak peeks that we can post in the community for people, little behind the scenes breaking news action, you know? I mean, Amanda always likes to take a picture of her car with all the stuff loaded up. Although I should do that this time because I have all the stuff in my room here. I got your box of Blick materials, So yeah, definitely jump in the community, head over to the conference discussion space and just make posts. But for sure, like there are certain times, like during the kickoff last time, it was the…

that space was also kicking off. it was people were posting examples of their work as they were working on it or like their notes or even just like little notes of encouragement for like each other. People would be like, oh, I’m here. They would be like a picture of their screen and a little coffee cup. And they’re like, I’m ready to go. Like, I don’t know. I love stuff like that. That’s heartwarming. That’s why I’m in the community. So yes, post post your little setup, like getting ready for the comfort posted in there. I would love that. I definitely will give it all the emojis in the community.

Tim:

You said it. Thanks again for coming on, Jen.

Jen:

Anytime, Tim.

Tim:

Thank you to Jen for coming on and taking some time to share what’s happening in the community as well as what we are both looking forward to at the conference this weekend. Now, as we wrap up this conversation, I keep coming back to the same idea. The Art Ed Now Conference is not just about strategies and teaching, it’s about connection and it is about energy.

And I hope if you join us that you can be reminded that teaching art can still feel joyful and meaningful and it can fulfill you creatively even when the school year and the world feels really heavy. And hopefully that inspiration that connection sends you back into your classroom with a little bit better feeling a little bit more energy and whether that’s just a

Single session that you see that sparks a new lesson idea, or taking some time to make art, and helping you slow down and breathe, or the Austin Kleon keynote that changes the way you think about creativity. There are a lot of ways that this conference can impact you. Okay, you may come for one specific idea But hopefully you can leave with a notebook full of ideas. Maybe maybe some of which you didn’t even know you were looking for

And of course, the conference does not end after this weekend. We have the after pass where you can find all the resources, revisit all the presentations, check out the bonus presentations, and you can also continue the conversation in the Art of Ed community. And we’re going to be there before the conference during the entire conference weekend and long after it’s over. And I think that connection, which stays moving, stays ongoing.

can really help us take the ideas from the conference, put them into action and see how everyone else is doing that as well. Continuing that inspiration and keeping all of those good feelings going. So if you can make it this weekend, we would love to have you there. You have until Thursday at noon to register for the conference. Friday night is kickoff, Saturday is the main event, and then everything after that is the afterpass.

And however you come, whenever you come, we are so excited to see you there. And I can’t wait to do it all this weekend.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. Again, if you still have not registered for the conference, you can do that at www.theartofeducation.edu slash now. We will also link to that in the show notes. Again, you have until Thursday at noon to get that registration in. And once you do that, we will hopefully see you Friday, Saturday, or both, and also in the After Pass as you go back and revisit all the ideas and presentations in the coming year. Can’t wait for it and we hope to see you there.