The 2025 National Arts in Education Portal Day – Roundup

National Arts in Education Portal Day 2025

On Saturday November 8th, we returned to the beautiful surroundings of the East Quad at TU Dublin for the 10th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day, in partnership with the School of Art & Design. With over 100 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance, this years conference saw a mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops to inspire and explore best practices in arts and creativity in education.

The day was jointly opened by John Walsh, Head of School of Art and Design, TU Dublin and Jennifer Buggie, National Arts in Education, Tralee Education Support Centre and Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee Member.

Jennifer opened the conference by celebrating 10 years of the Portal, highlighting its concrete and tangible examples of practice. She described the Portal as a strong foundation to build upon—a doorway into curiosity, relationality and creativity, where arts, science, culture and people connect in meaningful ways.

Professor John Johnston, UNESCO Chair of issues-based arts education at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands delivered a stimulating keynote address. He introduced issues-based arts education, an approach that shifts attention from creating objects to engaging with people and their stories. He emphasised the idea of the artist educator, a single creative identity that dissolves the divide between artist and teacher.

‘Artist educator is one word. Art is education – and education is art’

Thanks to all involved in making the day a huge success! Special thanks to the young performers from Swords Youth Choir, conductor Mina Eusebio and accompanist Con Diamond who closed the day with a celebratory performance.

National Arts in Education Portal Day in TU Dublin, November 2025. Photo: Ewa Figaszewska

A podcast series with selected presentations from the day will be available soon.