2026 Summer Art Ed NOW Conference Preview (Ep. 528)

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

Welcome to the show, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We’re doing something new for this podcast — we are recording this live in the Art of Ed Community. We’re going to do a Now Conference preview, because this is the week of the Now Conference. And Jen Leban is joining me now. Jen, how are you?

Jen: Hello! I’m doing great. How are you?

Tim: I’m great! We were just talking before we started recording about how — knock on wood — everything is going well for the conference. So hopefully that continues right up until the day of. I’m really looking forward to everything involved. It’s always a great time — the art making, getting everybody together, sharing so many great ideas. Overall, what are you looking forward to for the conference?

Jen: Well, we broadcast for the conference from the Chicagoland area, which is where I live. I’m excited because I get to go on a site visit on Monday — do some recon and make sure everything is going to be great for the live event.

Tim: It feels so official! We usually love going to downtown Chicago because of the art, the architecture — it’s a beautiful city. However, the last few years, the Art Ed Now Conference has overlapped with Lollapalooza, and downtown gets very, very full. So we’re always kind of pushed out to the suburbs, which is still great. I still love Chicago, but we don’t always get the full experience.

Jen: As long as Amanda is near a Chipotle, all is good.

Tim: That is Amanda’s favorite part of traveling — Chipotle every day. I’m not going to complain; I love it as well. Okay, so I want to talk about the conference in a little bit, but before we do, we’re obviously recording live in the community here. I would love for you to pitch everyone listening on why they need to come join the community. We talk about it all the time — especially when Amanda and I are doing the mailbag — but can you update us on what’s going on and share a few exciting things?

Jen: Absolutely. Even today, when you join the community, there are some screener questions we ask — just to make sure you’re a human and not a spam bot — and one of the questions is, “Why are you excited to join the community?” Today, one of the responses was, “I heard about the community on Art Ed Radio and it sounded like it would be fun.” I love seeing that. It fills my heart.

So, why join? Let me tell you what’s coming up. This summer we’ve been doing a whole bunch of live streams, and in August we have the return of the Lunch Bunch live stream. Twice a month, on Fridays at noon Central time, we do these half-hour conversations — kind of like this — just hanging out and catching up on what’s happening in the art teacher world. Because they’re recorded, you can always tune in later. We want to be your stand-in lunch buddies. You can listen during your plan period while you’re getting stuff done. It’s just nice not to feel alone. We’re doing a lot more live streaming in the community — it’s free, you tune in when you can, and if you can’t, that’s cool. We really just want to be someone who’s here for you, not something else on a teacher’s plate.

Tim: Exactly. But it is nice to hang out. Lunch Bunch is my favorite and — I don’t want to invite myself, but I kind of want to invite myself. So I will just say: if you need a guest for Lunch Bunch, please reach out.

Jen: Tim, you are always welcome at Lunch Bunch! I love hearing about your Owala water bottle tendencies.

Tim: That is soaking upstairs — it needed to be washed.

Jen: If you’re listening right now, friends, this is your reminder to wash your water bottle. I’d also like to mention one more really big, important thing — both for people already in the community and people who are not yet in it. Starting August 1st, we are releasing what we’re calling the New Member Starter Pack in the Art of Ed Community — so here’s your big preview. We’re also doing some really fun exclusive goodies and downloads, including a printable one-page circular design with art teacher logos and graphics. The idea is you can DIY whatever you want with it — make buttons, magnets, stickers, run it through your Cricut machine. I may have already found some things to make little round magnets with, and I’m thinking they’d be really fun prizes in the community. I’m so excited!

Tim: Really cool! Now I want to give a quick shout out to the community chat going on here. Megan said, “It’s nice connecting with my people.” Annette came in with the running joke: “It’s the most fun you can legally have online.” And Catherine said the community is her PLC — and she’s the only art teacher at her school. We love all of that. And that’s what the conference is about as well — a chance to get together, make some art, and be part of that art teaching community.

Speaking of which, I wanted to talk about the art making. I’m really looking forward to that — it’s happening Friday night as part of the kickoff. You’re going to be hosting the elementary room with Sarah Krayevski, and I’m going to be hosting the secondary room with Chris Hodge. From your perspective, what should people look forward to from that art-making experience on Friday night?

Jen: As someone who’s presented at the Now Conference before, I’m well-versed in the regular conference sessions — but the kickoff is something else. If you’ve never been, you need to come. Friday night is the party before the party, with emphasis on the fun. The first hour is games and fun, and then we split off. I’m going to be in the elementary room with Sarah Krayevski. A lot of people are familiar with Sarah — she’s visible, she’s fabulous. She’s been our guest at Art Club a couple of times already, so if you’re in the community, you’re probably used to her presentation style. I love getting to co-host with her and watch her do her thing. She’s so much fun, and I always leave feeling really excited to make art and share ideas. Our activity is intuitive line painting, inspired by a Flex lesson — but we’re really just going to let our artsy freak flags fly for an hour.

Tim: I love the way you describe that. The energy Sarah brings is so uplifting — that’s the word I’d use. You get done with that and you just feel so much better, so excited about creating, about being together. Strong suggestion for people to come join us Friday night. As I said, I’ll be doing the art making with Chris Hodge. He is a wonderful illustrator, and we are going to do something inspired by a Flex lesson but with our own twist. It’s called Nature Takeover — a great mix of the human-built environment with nature taking over. I’m looking forward to seeing what Hodge does because the drawing lesson really aligns with his own illustration style. I’ll also be creating, but not nearly as well as he will.

Jen: Hodge is incredible. I’m sad I can’t be in two places at once.

Tim: We are going to record both sessions, so if you have the After Pass with the conference, you can go back and see the recordings of both.

Okay, Jen, let’s talk a little more about the community aspect — Art Club, Maker Mondays, the get-togethers. What are the benefits of getting together with other art teachers? The benefits of setting aside time just to create?

Jen: Yeah, which applies to the kickoff as well — you’re setting aside time to make art with other art teachers. For me personally, I love seeing friends. And although I’m not currently in the classroom — I’m working full time for the Art of Education from home — it’s not unlike the experience of working in your own classroom as a department of one. It gets lonely. And it’s re-energizing just to be around other people who are like you. Because you’re still an art teacher at heart — that never leaves us.

Just this week during Pop-Up Studio, Janet Taylor and I were discussing how when people see you in real life at a conference, they get really excited. And I love watching that happen. But I don’t think people realize it goes both ways. I get so excited when I see people I recognize from their names or profile pictures in the community. You see these people over and over and you get invested — you want to know about their lives, how their dogs or their chickens are doing, how that mural project turned out. It is the human connection. Even as an introvert, I cannot say enough about it. It does good things for your soul.

Tim: That’s true. It’s a wonderful feeling and a wonderful experience — and it grows over the course of years. Now, I feel like we kind of buried the lead a little, because the first hour of the kickoff we always do party games and fun art making — and this year we are doing our own take on The Great British Bake Off. We’re calling it the Art Ed Make Off. If you’re familiar with the show, you will love it. If you’re not, I’m going to suggest you watch an episode or two before Friday night. I’ll be there as Paul Hollywood, Amanda will be Prue, and Jen — of course — you’re going to be Noel. How are you feeling about dressing up as Noel? I feel like it is just the role you were born to play.

Jen: One hundred percent. In our podcast notes, I literally wrote in all capitals: “SO FREAKING EXCITED.” That sums it all up. If you don’t know Noel Fielding and you’re not British-comedy adjacent — we love Noel in my house. We’ve watched The Mighty Boosh, we’ve watched The IT Crowd, and now he’s doing color commentary on The Great British Bake Off. I was able to get a sweet shaggy wig, a whimsical novelty sweater, and of course I’m going to do some black guy liner. So excited, Tim. So excited.

Tim: It’s going to be great. I’m feeling a little left out because there’s not much I can do for Paul Hollywood — a button-down shirt and a well-trimmed beard, and that’s about it. But I am looking forward to being a little standoffish and critiquing everyone’s art making. No, we are going to be much more kind than Paul is on the show. It will be good!

Okay, but we should also talk about the conference itself. There are a lot of great presentations. You can see the full schedule at theartofeducation.edu/now. Jen, can you give us a couple of presentations you’re excited about? I’m happy to go first.

Two that I think are great for the month of August and going back into the school year: First, Erin Sponaugle is doing a presentation about setting boundaries this year — a real playbook for how you protect your time and your energy, which I think is incredibly important. And then Venise Keys is doing one about your creative well-being — how to feel your best and do your best as an artist and a creative while you’re still teaching. Those are both messages we need to hear. We need to talk more about taking care of yourself and protecting that precious energy. So I’m really looking forward to what Aaron and Venice both have to say.

Jen: Okay, looking at that list of presenters, I’m just going to be honest — I am picking my friends. First, Jessica Stuver, who has presented at the Now Conference before and whose last session was absolutely chef’s kiss amazing. She’s presenting again, and her session is called Creative Transformations: Making Learning Come Alive. She’s actually presenting during the elementary hour, which is that time when we break off during the Now Conference. So little shout out to my elementary room! I also noticed in the After Pass that there’s a session by one of my previous co-workers from my old school district — Renee Koharchuk. She teaches ceramics in Illinois, and her session is called Art Room Hacks: Classroom Management. I’m super interested to check that out as well.

Tim: It’s a fun one! Janet Taylor and I were at NAEA together, and I told her I’d just seen this great presentation — Renee Koharchuk was one of the presenters. Janet immediately said, “I know Renee!” — turns out she had taught one of Janet’s kids. Small world.

Jen: And now I realize she would have taught Janet’s kids, because I taught Janet’s kids in elementary school too. We weren’t the same school district, but still — wow.

Can I give a couple of honorable mentions? In the world of “hey, I know that person” — Kayla O’Neal is doing a session called How to Showcase Your Personal Work. She was my AOEU Studio course instructor when I took the graphic design studio. And of course, I can’t not mention Jackie Jablecki — everything she does is just incredible. I wish she lived closer to me. If you haven’t seen her on YouTube, or her work in Mini Masterpieces, or the Dear Sketchbook series — everything she does is so good. I can’t not mention her.

Tim: I love Kayla’s presentation. She’s taking the conversation further from “you need to make more work” to “okay, now what do you do with that work?” I think that’s an important addition. And Jackie just works her magic — everything she does is spectacular. When I was putting together the lineup, I thought: Who follows Oliver Jeffers? And the answer was: Jackie can do it. She’s going right after him.

For those who are unfamiliar, Oliver Jeffers is an artist, author, and illustrator, probably best known as the illustrator of The Day the Crayons Quit, which is one of my favorite children’s art books. I went to interview him and it was fantastic. I got to visit his studio in Brooklyn, and all of his flat files were labeled in that exact handwriting from the books. I was just geeking out the entire time.

Jen: The handwriting — you’re like, “I know that!”

Tim: It was so cool. I didn’t say anything to him, but I was internally losing it. He was incredibly kind, and his presentation is going to be great. He has a powerful message about what it takes to be creative and the responsibility of artists and creatives in today’s world. Plus, I got to hang out in Brooklyn and visit his studio, which was a wonderful experience.

Jen: Tim, I have a very, very important question about your trip to New York.

Tim: Please, go ahead.

Jen: What was the best food you had while you were there?

Tim: Great question. I went to an Ethiopian restaurant and it was spectacular. They have injera, which is this really pillowy flatbread — and as a vegetarian, so many great options. There was no silverware; you just eat with your hands. So many incredible flavors. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. Quick honorable mention: I can’t do dairy, and the prevalence of dairy-free ice cream around New York City is incredible. I found it everywhere, and it made me very happy to eat ice cream four times in three days.

Jen: And so you did!

Tim: Basically, yes. Okay, one last question for you, Jen, because I know we need to wrap up soon. After the conference is over, we have the After Pass — people can go back and revisit everything, watch the live art making they missed, find things that are perfect for their classroom. But we’re also doing things in the community to keep the conversation going. Can you give people a heads up on what to expect?

Jen: Yes! In the community, we have a space called Conference Discussions, which is a great place to post questions about any conference, including the Now Conference. But we’re trying something new starting with this Summer Now Conference. We are going to open up a separate space with a chat feed called the After Pass Chat. The purpose is to give people a place to continue the conversation — very similar to the vibe of the live conference chat in Zoom, because that energy is so fun and so electric. We’re like: how do we capture that and keep it going?

So we’re opening up this chat space in the community and keeping it open for two weeks following the conference. As you watch things in the After Pass, you can share insights, ask questions, connect with people you met in the conference chat. When you log off of the Now Conference, there’s almost this feeling of… it’s over, what’s next? A little bit of withdrawal. We want to bridge that experience and keep those good vibes flowing. Come over to the community, use the After Pass chat, and continue the conversation!

Tim: Absolutely. The chat is so helpful for so many people. If we can capture even a small part of that energy, that’s great. Alright, Jen — we’re going to wrap it up there. As always, we hope to see everyone in the community, both before and after the conference. If you still have not registered — and we know art teachers are very good at procrastinating — you have until Friday at noon to register. Go to theartofeducation.edu/now, find out everything you need to know, and get that last-minute registration in. Then come join us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Lastly, after the conference, everybody keep an eye out for AOEU’s back-to-school campaign. They have a really cool back-to-school bundle coming with resources, free lessons, classroom posters, advocacy tools, and — maybe my favorite — the full-year customizable digital planner. So many cool things. We want to make sure everyone has what they need to have a successful school year, and the back-to-school campaign will be a big part of that. Keep an eye out for it in the coming weeks.

Jen, thank you so much for joining us. Can’t wait to do this together on Friday!

Jen: This was fun. Thank you!