National Convening on Art and Social Connection
March 19–20, 2026 | Atlanta, GA
Whether you are an artist, researcher, policymaker, healthcare provider, museum professional, or community leader, the National Convening on Art and Social Connection invites you to be part of a growing movement to strengthen connection and belonging through engagement with visual art.
Registration opens December 2, 2025, and closes on March 2, 2026.
This dynamic two-day event will bring together leaders and practitioners from across the arts, public health, social services, aging, museums, community development, and policy sectors to explore how creative engagement can combat loneliness and build more connected communities.
Organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, the convening will feature keynote speakers, interactive workshops, panels, and breakout sessions designed to inspire bold ideas, foster cross-sector collaboration, and support the development of new initiatives. Participants will engage with innovative arts engagement strategies, share knowledge with one another, and work together to envision strategies that center the arts in approaches to wellness, connectivity, and resilience.
At a time of growing social fragmentation, this convening highlights the critical role of the arts in strengthening our social fabric—and catalyzes new connections across disciplines and communities.
See below for more information on the convening, including goals, registration, and select featured speakers.
Convening Goals
Highlight innovative programs from across the country that address loneliness and social isolation using arts-based approaches, including cross-sector partnerships between the arts and health communities
Facilitate constructive exchange among professionals from diverse sectors to share knowledge, identify common goals, and build collaborative relationships
Deepen collective understanding of how isolation affects individual health and societal cohesion—and how the arts can support connection to self, others, and the broader world
Define effective practices by co-creating working definitions of strong arts and social connection programs, along with facilitation strategies that maximize impact
Registration
Registration is required. Space is limited; early registration is recommended.
Registration includes:
- full access to all convening sessions, including panels, workshops, and breakout sessions;
- access to the museum’s special exhibitions and collection of world-class art;
- networking opportunities with other attendees and speakers, including an evening reception on Thursday, March 19; and
- ongoing access to presentations and attendee information.
There are a limited number of scholarships available to cover the registration fee. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please complete the scholarship application form by February 5.
View Preliminary Schedule
Download ScheduleFeatured Speakers
vanessa german (born 1976) is an artist working in sculpture, performance, and communal ritual in North Carolina. Her distinctive artistic language and self-taught approach includes employing mineral crystals, beads, glass, found objects, and other sourced material to create expressive figurative sculptures. The artist’s practice also intertwines with her history of activism and community leadership; in 2011, she founded the arts initiative Love Front Porch before establishing ARThouse, a community studio and artist residency, in 2014. She has received accolades including the Joyce Foundation Fellowship (2024), Heinz Award for the Arts (2022), and the Don Tyson Prize from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2018), and has staged exhibitions at the NSU Art Museum (2024–2025), Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago (2024), Mulvane Art Museum (2024), The Contemporary Dayton (2023), and Montclair Art Museum (2023), among others.
Anne Basting is a writer, artist, and social advocate who lives and works in Atlanta. She is Emerita Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and founder of the award-winning nonprofit TimeSlips, which inspires and supports the integration of creativity and meaning making into care systems. Her writing and large-scale public performances have helped shape an international movement to extend creative and meaningful expression from childhood, where it can be expected, through to late life, where she believes it has been too long withheld. Basting has authored numerous articles and four books, including Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care (Harper One, 2020), and holds a PhD in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota and a master’s in theatre from the University of Wisconsin.
Contact Us
For additional information, email culturecollective@rstage.high.org or call 404-733-5034.