NAEA26 Programming
Connect and be inspired throughout three days of programming with 600+ options for sessions, workshops, events, exhibits, and more—all carefully curated to meet the professional learning goals for visual arts, design, and media arts education professionals. We can’t wait to see you in Chicago!
Ticketed Workshops + Events: On Sale Now! (New Tickets Just Added!)
In addition to the hundreds of sessions available with your registration, you can also purchase tickets to hands-on workshops and special events. Tickets can be purchased when registering for NAEA26, or added to an existing NAEA26 registration while supplies last. These tickets sell out fast—so don’t miss out on this opportunity.
Already registered and need help adding tickets onto your registration? Watch this video tutorial.
Access this and more with your registration:
General Session Keynotes
Designed to engage the entire National Convention audience, these daily experiences feature high-profile keynote speakers, along with NAEA Executive and Board leadership, setting the tone for the convention experience.
Artist Series
A special showcase of innovative and accomplished local artists in visual arts, design, and media arts, curated by the Local Advisory Committee. Each year, attendees enjoy an exclusive, immersive experience with sought-after creatives from the host city.
Concurrent Sessions
Concurrent Sessions form the core of the National Convention programming, providing a wide breadth of learning and engagement opportunities through hands-on workshops, research presentations, demonstrations, discussions, and interactive sessions, spanning NAEA divisions, interest groups, and focus areas.
Business Meetings/Awards
Hosted by NAEA regional, division, interest group, and focus area leadership, Business Meetings and Award Sessions are opportunities to conduct annual business, recognize achievements, facilitate attendee engagement, and network within the National Convention program.
Exhibit Hall & Digital Playground
See and try the latest and greatest products, services, and opportunities in the visual art, design, and media arts education field. That’s right…SWAG!
Museum Discounts
During downtime, explore all that Chicago has to offer! Present your NAEA26 Convention badge to receive free or discounted admission at select Chicago museums. Museum listing will be available soon.
Keynote Speakers
We’re excited to announce the Keynote speakers for NAEA26! Be informed and inspired as an educator and an artist by this outstanding lineup of General Session Speakers.
Bisa Butler
Thursday, March 5 | 9:00am
Bisa Butler creates vibrant quilted portraits that celebrate African American life and history. Inspired by family scrapbooks, American folk traditions, and AfriCOBRA philosophies, she uses layered fabrics and quilting to create compositions with psychological depth. Her work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, among others. Butler has exhibited internationally and received the inaugural Faith in the Arts Award in 2024. She lives and works in New Jersey.
Yvette Mayorga
Friday, March 6 | 9:00am
Chicago-based artist Yvette Mayorga transforms sugar-pink palettes and rococo-inspired textures into confectionary-based explorations of belonging, consumer culture, femme power, and the American Dream. As a first-generation Latinx, she draws from personal experience to inform her art. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, and The Momentary at Crystal Bridges, as well as in group shows at LACMA, El Museo del Barrio, and beyond. Her art is held in major collections including the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, Crystal Bridges, and the City of Chicago’s permanent public art collection at O’Hare International Airport. She is currently developing her largest public artwork to date for New York’s Times Square Arts.
Jeffrey Gibson
Saturday, March 7 | 9:00am
Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist known for his bold synthesis of Indigenous and Western traditions across painting, installation, video, and performance. A citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, he represented the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his solo exhibition the space in which to place me, later shown at The Broad in Los Angeles. Gibson’s work is in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Gallery of Art. He is the 2025 Metropolitan Museum Genesis Facade Commission artist and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, where he is artist-in-residence at Bard College.
Artist Series Speakers
Chicago’s vibrant arts scene is world-renowned, and we’re thrilled to introduce the NAEA26 Artist Series speakers. These special sessions feature Chicago-based artists whose vision, innovation, and community impact will both inspire and energize you.
Shannon Downey
ART ACTIVIST, EDUCATOR, AUTHOR
Thursday, March 5 | 3:00pm
Shannon Downey, known as Badass Cross Stitch, is an artist, activist, and community builder who uses craft-based art forms to inspire social change. Through collaborative projects and workshops, she transforms traditional making into collective action—helping people move from passive consumers to engaged creators and changemakers. Her work confronts hard truths while cultivating connection, radical hope, and a vision for what’s possible.
Faheem Majeed
ARTIST, EDUCATOR, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE FLOATING MUSEUM
Friday, March 6 | 12:00pm
Faheem Majeed is an artist, curator, educator, and nonprofit administrator whose work centers on collaboration and institutional critique as tools for community engagement and social dialogue. A founder and co-director of the Floating Museum, Majeed creates sculptures and installations that recontextualize marginalized objects, histories, and spaces to challenge their perceived value and foster collective reflection.
Damon Lamar Reed
ARTIST
Friday, March 6 | 3:00pm
Damon Lamar Reed is a multidisciplinary artist using murals, music, and public art to uplift communities and spark change. Named the 2025 Choose Chicago Artist of the Year, he has completed over 400 public art projects for organizations including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Gatorade, and the Chicago Blackhawks. Reed is known for his Still Searching series, which raises awareness about missing women and children through portraiture and storytelling. A believer in the transformative power of art, Reed continues to use creativity as a catalyst for hope and healing.
Tonika Lewis Johnson
SOCIAL JUSTICE ARTIST, FOUNDER OF THE FOLDED MAP PROJECT
Saturday, March 7 | 12:00pm
Tonika Lewis Johnson is a social justice artist and photographer whose work examines the impact of systemic disinvestment and racial segregation in urban communities. Her acclaimed Folded Map Project pairs Black and White residents from corresponding North and South Side addresses to reveal both the disparities and shared humanity within the city’s grid. Johnson’s projects—including Inequity for Sale and UnBlocked Englewood—use public art and storytelling to illuminate entrenched socioeconomic divides while building community-driven pathways toward repair.
