Cooperation has many histories and takes many forms:
What is the cooperative movement? - Cooperatives Europe
At our 2026 conference in Rochdale, guest speakers Greg Bond, Director of Rochdale Culture Co-op, and Helen Thackray, Create Rochdale, spoke of their cooperative values and a form of consensus decision making called sociocracy. Picking up on this conversation Dr. Helen Smith, University of Sunderland, will draw on her participatory and collaborative research methods to gently lead this NAFNET towards a workshop style session where we have a go at working cooperatively ourselves.
The subject proposed is ‘What actions or publishing methods will effectively promote the following key aims of NAFAE?’ Of course, you may have other suggestions, please bring them with you.
Aims are suggested from our previous 4 conferences:
Rochdale 2026 - Collective agency in defence of creative and cultural education and placemaking.
Hull 2025 - Is a counterhegemonic alliance between mainstream and alternative art schools possible?
Canterbury 2024 - The Art School is changing. It has an ability to be agile in reproducing itself in an expanding range of platforms, amongst social and political contexts and against sector metrics that challenge us to work in different ways.
London 2023 - The 'turn' to 'the professional employment of graduates’, by the Office for Students, makes the issue an urgent one for fine art education to address.
To learn more about these conferences visit our Conference Archive.
NAFNET is a free member-focused forum for debate around important aspects of Fine Art education in the current climate. NAFNET takes place on Zoom and sessions are recorded and can be accessed by NAFAE members afterwards.