CHEAD Annual Conference 2025

The Shift: Harmonising the Arts, AI and technology for sustainable futures

Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University

The Shift: Harmonising the Arts, AI and technology for sustainable futures

The rate at which technology is advancing presents both opportunities and challenges for the fields of art and design, as well as society.

The intersection of art, design and technology is leading to new forms of artistic expression, storytelling, design, and even ways of solving complex problems. However, traditional jobs roles in the creative sector will shift, with the need for new skills and competencies in our future graduates. This brings challenges for HE to address, not least the emergence of generative AI, the digital divide and equity of access to technology and issues of ethics and intellectual property. This in turn will hamper the sectors’ potential to address pressing issues such as the climate emergency and social equity.

Manchester, the home of the Industrial revolution and the birthplace of the computer, provides a unique opportunity for CHEAD to identify and debate how we balance innovation and social responsibility, and prepare Art and Design education and research, staff and students, for the challenges and opportunities of harmonising Art, Design and Technology towards sustainable futures.

CHEAD members are entitled to at least one free conference place. Please contact joanie@chead.ac.uk for conference booking information.

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Dates & times

Pre-conference Event

25 March at 18:00 – 20:00

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Conference

26 March 09:15 – 21:00

27 March 09:00 – 17:00

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Location

Manchester School of Art
Manchester Metropolitan University
Lowry Building, Boundary Street West
Manchester
M15 6BR

Conference Programme

Exhibitions of students’ work from Manchester School of Art and CHEAD NW member institutions will take place in the following galleries all based at the School of Art; The Holden Gallery (Grosvenor West), Modal (School of Digital Arts) and the Vertical Gallery (Lowry Building).

Pre conference event

18:00 – 20:00

Pre-conference reception and networking, Manchester Art Gallery.

09:15	Registration, gather, network, refresh
10:00	Welcome to Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University Shelley McNulty, Head of Design at Manchester School of Art Jill Griffiths, Head of the School of Digital Arts
10:05	Welcome introduction to conference Professor David McGravie, Chair, CHEAD
10:20	Keynote: AI and the AI Art School/Harmonising the Arts with Technology Professor Sarah Atkinson, King’s College London
10:45	Keynote: Ethics and Technology
11:10	Break
11:30	Keynote: Sustainability and Society
11:55	Future Arts Careers: panel discussion Chair: Jacqueline Butler, Dean and Head of School of Arts,University of the West of England Richard Woods,CREATEBritain Brian Frederiksen, Monaco Foundry Jill Griffiths, Head of the School of Digital Arts Alinah Akbar, Visual Artist
12:30	Lunch
14:00	Our sponsor ArtsThread presents: AI’s Growth in IP Creation Demands a New Model for Protection and Monetization Brian Frederiksen, Monaco Foundry Alex Brownless, ArtsThread As AI accelerates innovation, intellectual property (IP) creation is exploding. AI-generated IP is expected to grow 50x by 2030, and by 2028, AI will assist in producing 50% of all new IP globally—unlocking unprecedented opportunities in IP protection and monetization. However, this burgeoning landscape also presents significant challenges. The lack of protection and monetization loss of creative IP is rampant, with much of it shared on social media platforms. These platforms, in their terms of use, often incorporate broad licenses granting them non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, worldwide rights to use user-generated content. This allows them to utilize the content for any purpose—such as training AI models, displaying it to other users, or incorporating it into products—without compensating the creators. Moreover, these platforms can modify, adapt, and sublicense the content to third parties for further use. This creates an urgent need for a platform that provides true protection and fair monetization of IP. Creators require a safe space to register and safeguard their work—one that prevents AI models from training on it without explicit permission. A solution built on tokenization and blockchain technology could offer the transparency, security, and royalty guarantees necessary to empower creators, ensuring they are fairly compensated for their contributions in this rapidly evolving, AI-driven world.
14:30	Workshop: AI, Sustainability and CreaTech Enabled Art School Led by: Louise O’Boyle, Ulster University
14:30	Workshop: CreaTech and Graduate Careers Led by: Bronwen Rees and Rachel Bronstein, Design Council ” We need to re-design nearly every aspect of how we live our lives. Design shapes the world. So designers have huge power, and with power comes responsibility.” Join the Design Council’s Skills Team to find out more about the Green Skills Mission and their framework to upskill nearly two million designers in critical green skills. Co-create the graduate attributes our designers of the future need now. Discuss graduate outcomes and employability opportunities for climate literate students. Explore how Creative Technologies are supercharging the transition and enabling how to Design for Planet. Take account of the ethical challenges designers are facing.
14:30	Workshop: CreaTech, the Arts and Society Led by: Professor Teresa Dillon, University of the West of England Across the fields of AI-generated art and extended reality (XR) design, the ongoing maintenance and care of systems are often treated as secondary concerns compared to the excitement and novelty surrounding the launch of a new project. Drawing on work carried out as part of Repair Acts, in association with No School and the JUST AI programme, this workshop seeks to address these overlooked aspects of technology design by using the online card deck Handle With Care as a creative tool. Working in groups, participants will use the online card deck, to generate concepts that serve as catalysts for an open discussion on the critical themes of care and repair within AI and XR contexts. Outcomes of the workshop will be collated and shared during the conference period, with the intention to support wider dialogue on sustainability and ethical design practices in these fast-evolving fields.
14:30	Workshop: CreaTech – the Challenges of Upskilling Led by: Abid Qayum, Universtiy of Westminster This session will be co-delivered by the CHEAD Technical Alliance and Manchester School of Art and will explore the challenges of upskilling staff and students to embrace and innovate with new technologies. This session will tackle the balance between traditional skills and emerging tools, fostering creativity and adaptability in a rapidly evolving landscape.
15:30	Break
16:00	Workshops repeat
17:10	CHEAD AGM & Elections
18:30	Conference reception


09:00	Tours
09:00 – 10:15	School of Digital Arts (SODA) facilities Meeting Location: Lowry Building Reception Cap: 20 SODA is Manchester School of Art’s £35m investment into workspaces, networks, teaching and research, aimed to drive ideas and innovation across all forms of creative content. This tour will take you round the specialist facilities including a digital innovation and UX lab, film studios, green screens, edit suites, sound, music and production studios, a screening room, and MODAL, our digital art gallery.
09:00 – 10:15	MMU School of Art workshops Meeting Location: Lowry Reception Cap:20 Manchester School of Art is home to a number of specialist making and media workshops, combining both traditional and state of the art techniques for teaching and research, supported by our specialist technicians. The tour will showcase workshops and facilities for working with wood, plastics, metal, ceramics, glass and textiles, for traditional and digital printing on paper and fabrics, for knitting, weaving and sewing, for book binding, preparing canvases, computer-aided manufacture and film processing resources for photography.
09:00 – 10:15	Manchester School of Theatre Performance Facilities Meeting Location: Lowry Reception Cap:20 Based in the Grosvenor East Building, Manchester School of Theatre is home to an enviable 180 seat studio theatre and movement spaces, supported by technical specialists in live theatre production. Take a look behind the curtain to see the backstage workings of a school of theatre.
09:00 – 10:00	North West Film Archive Meeting Location: Manchester Central Library (St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD) Cap: 20 The North West Film Archive houses, preserves and shares over 50,000 items of film and video for public, educational and professional use. Part of Manchester Met, and based at Manchester Central Library’s Archives+ partnership, the tour will showcase this specialist resource dedicated to saving and growing the North West region’s rich filmed history.
09:00 – 10:00	HOME Tour of Arches Meeting Location: HOME (2 Tony Wilson Pl, Manchester M15 4FN) Capacity: 20 HOME is an independent cinema, theatre and art gallery in Manchester city centre which works with international and UK artists to produce entertaining, extraordinary experiences, creating an exciting mix of thought-provoking film, art, drama, dance, and festivals, with a strong focus on new commissions, and talent development. HOME has recently opened its new Arches facilities, a free, bespoke artist development hub designed to support artists across a variety of disciplines in Greater Manchester. The Arches provide free high-quality studio spaces, alongside an extensive programme of residencies, events and workshops, working with up to 2,000 artists each year and powering creativity in the North.
10:30	Gather, network, refresh, coffee
10:50	Introduction to the day Shelley McNulty, Head of Design at Manchester School of Art Jill Griffiths, Head of the School of Digital Arts
11:00	Keynote: The future of Art School Leadership, Making the Shift Happen Rathna Ramanathan, Head of Central Saint Martins, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor in Design and Intercultural Communication at the University of the Arts London
11:30	Future Leadership workshop Led by Dr Dr Sam Lynch, founder of Work Smarter and Shelly McNulty, Head of Design at Manchester School of Art This workshop aims to find practical ways to boost leadership in Art, Design, and Media Schools and enable ‘shifts’ inspired by ideas and reflections from the conference. Participants will be encouraged to tap into their creative mindset to identify local ‘shifts’ that can help lead and inspire future visions of their Schools. By drawing on the agency of our network, we’ll turn these ideas into key actions and share them after the event. As a CPD opportunity, CHEAD is offering a certificate of attendance for this session.
13:00	Lunch
14:15	CHEAD Specialist Alliances updates
15:30	Break
15:45	CHEAD Chair’s concluding remarks and closing conference
16:00	Closing performance and refreshments

Conference Keynote Speakers

Sarah Atkinson

Professor of Screen Media

Sarah Atkinson is Professor of Screen Media at King’s College London, Editor of Routledge Resources Online: Screen Studies, and co-editor of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Sarah has published widely on the screen and immersive industries. As an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow, she curated GLOW: Illuminating Innovation, an exhibition showcasing ground-breaking creativity by women in technology at various locations on Strand Aldwych, London. The exhibition stems from her forthcoming book with Vicki Callahan: Mixed Realities: Gender & Emergent Media (Wayne State University Press, 2025).

Rathna Ramanathan

Head of Central Saint Martins, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor in Design and Intercultural Communication at the University of the Arts London

Rathna Ramanathan is a typographer, practice design researcher and academic known for her expertise in intercultural communication and alternative publishing practices. She is Head of Central Saint Martins, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor in Design and Intercultural Communication at the University of the Arts London. For the past thirty years, Rathna has led research-driven, intercultural, multi-platform graphic communication practice design research projects primarily in the Global South, all fuelled by a love for, and life-long interest in typography and languages, and a belief in communication as a fundamental human right.

Further speakers to be announced.

Conference Contributors

Louise O’Boyle is Associate Dean (Academic Quality & Student Experience) in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. She was formerly Head of Belfast School of Art, is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2014); elected Faculty Representative to Ulster University Senate (Jan 2022); professional member of Institute of Designers Ireland (2018); Chair of the Group for Learning in Art and Design in Higher Education (GLADHE); and a full member of Centre for Higher Education and Research Practice, Ulster University.

Image credit: transmediale, Berlin

Dr Sam Lynch is the founder of Work Smarter, an advisory practice that specifically supports high-achieving women. She delivers coaching, consulting, and workshops designed to unlock ambitions and accelerate professional success. With a background in marketing, business innovation, and academia – Sam works with clients from business, entrepreneurship, academia, medicine and the law.

Conference Sponsor

ARTS THREAD & Global Creative Graduate Showcase are the world’s leading platforms for emerging artists & designers and a launchpad for the next generation of creative talent. Over the last 15 years thousands of new creatives have launched their own brands and gained employment worldwide. Over the years the platforms have built relationships with 1000+ creative higher education institutions in 140+ countries and partnered with many brands/organisations such as United Nations, Google, Amazon, NYCxDESIGN, Gucci, Levi’s, BBC Worldwide, Nike, Milan Design Week, Premiere Vision, Herman Miller, WGSN and many more to help launch the next generation of creative talent globally.

ARTS THREAD FOUNDRY – Protect & monetize your creativity like never before. We believe that creativity is the most powerful currency in the world. That’s why Arts Thread Foundry is revolutionizing how creatives are protected and rewarded. Built to empower emerging creatives everywhere Arts Thread Foundry – powered by Monaco Foundry, is where creativity meets opportunity. The platform allows the creative to upload their work and create a unique intellectual property (IP) fingerprint of their creative rights using blockchain technology. The platform will launch before the summer. Arts Thread Foundry – Empowering the World’s Emerging Creators.