SAR Conferences
The largest international conference on practice-based research in the arts, hosted with a different institution each year.
Upcoming · 2027
Beyond the Familiar - 18th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research 2027
Bratislava, Slovakia
When we talk about the familiar, we begin with “we”, and the ground already moves. Who is the “we” that claims a shared familiar? The familiar is produced, learned, constructed and maintained through upbringing, education and environment, and equally through the deliberate work of making the previously unfamiliar one's own. On a personal level, the familiar is also the ground of our everyday experience: the habits, surroundings, memories and sensibilities through which the world becomes recognisable and meaningful and through which the seemingly ordinary acquires its aesthetic significance. The 2027 SAR International Conference on Artistic Research will be hosted by the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU). Founded in 1949, VŠMU is one of the oldest institutions for theatre, film, music and dance in Central Europe, bringing together three faculties across a densely networked artistic ecosystem in Slovakia and the wider region...
Recent

2025
17th SAR International Forum on Artistic Research 2026
University of Galway, Ireland
The 2026 International Forum on Artistic Research addressed the challenges of Endangered Conceptual Worlds. Hosted by the University of Galway on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, it took place from 23 to 26 June 2026 — just a few days before the start of the Irish EU presidency.

2025
16th SAR Conference on Artistic Research 2025
Porto, Portugal
Resonance, the 16th International Conference on Artistic Research 2025, was hosted by i2ADS, University of Porto. Resonance is a prompt to address the transformative nature of artistic research as a connective element that evokes a response and qualifies our experiences as meaningful.

2024
SAR International Forum on Artistic Research 2024
Tilburg, The Netherlands
In 2024, SAR introduced a new format for the 15th. International Conference on Artistic Research, that is held every two years. This Forum format offers time and space for meaningful and interesting conversations between artistic researchers, artists, practitioners, as well as policy makers and stakeholders from different backgrounds.
Previous
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14th. SAR International Conference on Artistic Research 2023 From April 19-21, 2023, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) hosted the 14th International Conference on Artistic Research in Trondheim. 50 presentations by researchers across the arts, peer reviewed and scheduled in five parallel tracks showcased a wide range of approaches. -
13th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research The 13th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research took place from 30th of June until 3rd of July, 2022, for the first time in Germany at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The conference consisted of a 24-hour online event and three days of live, on-site events in Weimar. -
12th International Conference on Artistic Research The 12th SAR Conference on Artistic Research of the Society for Artistic Research from 7th to 9th April 2021 was hosted by mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. -
Productive Gaps — 10th SAR International Conference 2019 (Zurich) -
Artistic Research Will Eat Itself — 9th SAR International Conference 2018 -
Please Specify! — 8th SAR International Conference 2017 -
Writing — 7th SAR International Conference 2016 -
Mind the Gap — SAR International Conference 2013