SAR International Conference on Artistic Research
About
SAR hosts an annual international conference dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating artistic research in all its forms. Bringing together artists, researchers, scholars, and practitioners from across disciplines, it is the largest international conference on artistic research and serves as a vibrant meeting point for sharing innovative practices, critical reflections, and new methodologies that emerge when art and research intersect.
Each year’s conference is shaped around a central theme, offering a dynamic platform for dialogue and experimentation that challenges conventional boundaries and expands the possibilities of artistic inquiry.
Upcoming 2026 Conference
Each year, the conference is organised in collaboration with a partnering institution, ensuring that the event is deeply embedded in a local context and enriched by the partner’s perspectives and specific areas of expertise. These collaborations infuse the annual event with diverse forms of knowledge, research approaches, and artistic practices that reflect the host’s unique contribution to the field.
The final details of the 2026 conference edition are being prepared and will be shared soon! Watch this space and remember to sign up to the newsletter to receive more information.
Previous Conferences
16th SAR Conference on Artistic Research 2025
Resonance, the 16th International Conference on Artistic Research 2025, was hosted by i2ADS, University of Porto. Resonance is a prompt to address the transformative nature of artistic research as a connective element that evokes a response and qualifies our experiences as meaningful.
SAR International Forum on Artistic Research 2024
In 2024, SAR introduced a new format for the 15th. International Conference on Artistic Research, that is held every two years. This Forum format offers time and space for meaningful and interesting conversations between artistic researchers, artists, practitioners, as well as policy makers and stakeholders from different backgrounds.
14th. SAR International Conference on Artistic Research 2023
From April 19-21, 2023, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) hosted the 14th International Conference on Artistic Research in Trondheim. 50 presentations by researchers across the arts, peer reviewed and scheduled in five parallel tracks showcased a wide range of approaches.
13th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research
The 13th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research took place from 30th of June until 3rd of July, 2022, for the first time in Germany at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The conference consisted of a 24-hour online event and three days of live, on-site events in Weimar.
SHARING EXPERIENCES FACE-TO-FACE
SAR's annual international events provide opportunities for mutual exchange, constructive dialogue and critical debate. They convene practitioners, scholars and professionals to showcase exemplary artistic research projects while focusing on key issues facing the international artistic research community.
ARTICULATING INTERESTS AND NEEDS
SAR conferences and forums allow to articulate the needs and represent the interests of artistic researchers and their institutions. As the largest conference on practice-based research through the arts, they also enable engagement with policy makers at local, regional and international levels.
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IN PERSON AND REMOTE ACCESS
The annual conference provides opportunities for exchange, dialogue and debate, in person and remotely. Bringing together leading practitioners, early career researchers, established scholars, distinguished academics, institutional representatives, funding bodies and policy makers.
PARTICIPATION FEES
The SAR Conference is an academic event, but the registration fees are relatively low compared to other academic conferences. We want to make sure that we do not exclude people who do not have a permanent academic position or an institutional affiliation that would cover the cost of the conference fees, so the SAR conference has a reduced fee for participants who are individual SAR members without an institutional affiliation or employment.
SAR CONFERENCE IN NUMBERS
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Existing since 2013 with more than 15 conferences.
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Among others, hosted at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague), University of the Arts Helsinki (Helsinki), University of Bergen - Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (Bergen), mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts (Vienna), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Weimar).
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More than 1500 participants over the years, 35 keynotes by leading practitioners, scholars and policymakers.
BUY A TICKET
The SAR conference offers a reduced fee for participants who are individual SAR members without institutional affiliation or employment. In order to maintain this model, we need the help of people working in institutions to support those who don't have an institutional affiliation, in addition to the financial commitment of the host university.
Registration deadline: April 10th, 2025. Past this date, it is no longer possible to buy a ticket for the 2025 conference edition.
NEED TO KNOW MORE?
Try visiting our FAQ page to learn more about the Society for Artistic Research and how to participate in its activities
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Keep in touch
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