EduCon 2026

When we pause to truly see the world around us, we’re struck not just by the complexity of its challenges—but by what’s missing. We see a crisis of empathy. A deficit of imagination. A world fraying from disconnection, blind to its own interconnectedness. What we’re lacking isn’t just solutions—it’s a mindset. The artist’s mindset.

Today, more than ever, we need people who are bold enough, human enough, to think like artists: to explore with curiosity, to lead with empathy, to stay grounded in uncertainty and still create something meaningful. But instead, our education system trains compliance over courage. It sorts, siloes, and standardizes. It rewards answers and punishes questions. It teaches students to conform—when what the world desperately needs are learners who can transform.

So what if we flipped the lens? What if we approached teaching not as content delivery, but as an invitation to create? What if our classrooms became studios of possibility—places that prize connection over isolation, curiosity over judgment, ambiguity over certainty, and empathy over stoicism?

This isn’t just an educational shift—it’s a human one. The artist’s mindset isn’t reserved for a few. It’s a way of being we must all learn to embody if we hope to thrive in an ever-shifting world. The purpose of this conversation is to imagine what it means to cultivate those artistic dispositions—playfulness, courage, openness, wonder—and to ask, with urgency and hope:

How might we build learning spaces that free the creative spirit, instead of confining it?