Calling all artistic practitioners, performers, philosophers, researchers, educators, students, pedagogues, admin staff, technicians, leaders and makers!

ELIA Biennial 2026 invites you to explore what forms of knowledge, practice, art and paradoxes emerge when we decentre dominant narratives, disrupt habitual hierarchies, and shift our attention toward the marginal, the local, the peripheral.

We welcome contributions that go off centre. Seeking forms of Community, Counterculture, Courage, and Criticality, we look to you for alternative methodologies and modalities, moments of failure and resistance, that move us towards new possibilities of a shared becoming as a body of knowing.

ELIA deeply understands the illuminating capacity of arts education and the idea that the form of a presentation can inspire and inform its content. At the ELIA Biennial 2026, a wide variety of formats are welcome, including academic papers, artistic and performative interventions, creative poster presentations, experiments, and workshops.

Student-Led Contributions

We encourage students to join the conversation at the ELIA Biennial. We welcome student-led contributions that amplify student voices and explore the Biennial theme. Share your practice, process, and alternative perspectives.

Selected students from ELIA member institutions will receive bursaries covering the cost of travel to and from Zwolle, as well as accommodation for the duration of the event. These bursaries are funded by the ELIA Supporting Members Fund.

You can read the full Call for contributions here. 

Fill in the form below and submit your proposal!