Creative Convergences: Arts-Centered Approaches to Global Challenges

February 12, 2027
Temple Performing Arts Center

Join us for the 2027 Arts and Quality of Life Conference, a day of conversation, creativity and connection—where the arts take center stage in shaping lives and strengthening communities. This year's theme, Creative Convergences, brings together artists, scholars and practitioners to explore how the arts can catalyze interdisciplinary responses to the most pressing challenges of our time. From climate change and environmental sustainability to social inequity, belonging, justice, and global migration, this conference highlights the essential role of the creative arts in shaping more equitable and sustainable futures.

Grounded in the understanding that complex societal issues require collaborative and imaginative approaches, the conference invites dialogue across disciplines including the arts, humanities, health sciences, education, and community-based practice. Through performances, panels, workshops, and artist-scholar conversations, participants will examine how artistic practices can illuminate lived experience, foster inclusive dialogue, and inspire transformative action. Creative Convergences aims to cultivate new partnerships, expand interdisciplinary scholarship, and position the arts as a vital force in addressing global challenges and advancing justice, sustainability, and collective well-being.

Conference Schedule

Thursday, February 11

4:30 PM: Conference welcome reception at the Ruddick Jazz Café (Temple Performing Arts Center lobby)

Friday, February 12

12:30 PM: Conference begins

• Registration opens
• Drop-in community art activity Art Hives available through 5:15 PM on the mezzanine level, led by Dr. Kathryn Snyder, assistant professor of art therapy for the Tyler School of Art + Architecture

1:00 PM: Dean's Welcome - Robert T. Stroker, the Joslyn G. Ewart Dean for the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts and vice provost for the arts for Temple University

1:15 PM-3:15 PM: Plenary speaker presentation: Meeting Global Challenges through Arts Practices

• 1:15 PM: Creative Convergences in Therapeutic Practice: Receptive Music Therapy and Interdisciplinary Arts-Based Approaches to Wellbeing - Elide Scarlata, professor of music therapy and coordinator of the music therapy program for Conservatory Alessandro Scarlatti (Palermo, Italy)
• 1:45 PM: Climate Narratives: Place-Based Fiction Film Practice as a Catalyst for Intergenerational Action - Micah Magee, assistant professor of film and media arts for the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts
• 2:15 PM: CHANT: Creating Harmonies Against Climate Change - Composer Melissa Dunphy, adjunct faculty for Rutgers University
• 2:45 PM: Moderated discussion - Arts, Health, Migration, and Belonging: Creative Practices for Resilience and Community 

This panel explores belonging, reframing experiences shaped by war, global health challenges, climate change, and rural precarity. Through film, music and earth sciences collaborations, the speakers examine how the arts foster resilience belonging cultural expression. The discussion highlights creative practices that build belonging and strengthen alliances across diverse and displaced communities. 

• Plenary speakers: Elide Scarlata, Micah Magee, Melissa Dunphy
• Moderator: TBA

3:15 PM: Break
3:30 PM: Plenary presentation - Widening Tango's Embrace by the Tango Therapy Project's Accessible Tango Program
4:30 PM: Comfort break
5:00 PM: Explanatory performance - Bridges by Philly Sound Exchange

Bridges is a high-energy, student-created musical that explores race, identity and belonging through live music, spoken word and storytelling. Performed by a diverse cast of young artists from across Philadelphia, the show brings real student experiences to the stage, creating a powerful, relatable experience for today's youth.

6:30 PM: Poster session with refreshments and cash bar, with live performance provided by jazz students of the Boyer College of Music and Dance

Call for Poster Proposals

We welcome poster proposals that explore how the arts can catalyze interdisciplinary responses to the most pressing challenges of our time. We especially welcome work that brings together perspectives across disciplines and demonstrates how artistic practices can illuminate lived experience, foster dialogue, strengthen communities, or contribute to transformative action.

Relevant areas may include, but are not limited to, climate change and sustainability; social inequity and justice; migration and displacement; belonging, mattering, and identity; health and well-being; education; community development; and other local or global challenges. 

We also encourage presenters to incorporate visual, recorded, interactive, or other artistic elements into their posters when appropriate. Submissions are peer-reviewed and may showcase research or projects that are complete or currently in progress.