Rooted in a rich history of craft and reinvention, the 2026 SECAC conference will be guided by the theme Interwoven: Threads, Patterns & Disruptions. Known as the “Southern City of the Arts,” Winston-Salem has long woven together threads of tradition and transformation from its Moravian beginnings to its industrial rise in textiles and tobacco, and now into its second life as a hub for innovation and the arts.
Interwoven: Threads, Patterns & Disruptions evokes both the literal and metaphorical: the warp and weft of hand-made, home-grown, and self-reliant creative practices; the liminal nature of a city in transition, shaped by transplants, climate, and growth; and the patterns that emerge and disrupt across time, craft, and culture. The theme acknowledges the region’s textile heritage, where weaving connects Winston-Salem to Greensboro, High Point, and beyond while highlighting how the arts continue to interlace histories, communities, and futures.
SECAC 2026 invites artists, scholars, and educators to explore art as embedded in connections that hold memory, identity, resilience, and innovation within its threads. Through the interactions that occur at the conference including conversations, presentations, panels, and exhibitions, SECAC 2026 will honor the city’s layered past while extending its reach into the evolving landscape of contemporary practice.
For the list of Sessions, https://secacart.org/resource/resmgr/docs/conference_2026/secac2026_call_for_papers_2..pdf
Dates to Remember
2026 Annual Juried Exhibition, Notifications by July 1, 2026
2026 SECAC Conference Registration opens August 3, 2026
| Venue: | SECAC |
| Starts: | October 21, 2026 |
| Ends: | October 24, 2026 |
Winston-Salem, NC
27101 United States
27101 United States
