Parallel Play Symposium
Collective Futures
October 24–25, 2026
at Asian Arts Initiative
Please register for the two-day symposium here!
Please build your own symposium schedule by registering for individual workshops and panels here!
The Parallel Play Symposium, presented as part of the six-week Collective Futures festival, is a two-day gathering of artists, scholars, organizers, and cultural workers exploring the practices, histories, and conditions that sustain collective cultural production. Through free panels, workshops, and performative presentations, participants will examine the cultural significance of collective art-making and artist-run spaces while sharing strategies for building and maintaining collaborative cultural infrastructures.
Organized around thematic tracks—including How To: Collective Tools & Tactics, Relational Infrastructures, Precarious Solidarities, “Have You Seen the ___?”: Memory and Collective Spaces, and Playground: Place, Ecology & Entanglement—the symposium will feature workshops, panels, performances, and conversations presented by ATUOMAT Collective, Luster Gallery + Studio, Obvious Agency, Vox Populi, Termite TV Collective, All Mutable, FORTUNE, FJORD, Big Ramp, Da Vinci Art Alliance, cinéSPEAK, Practice Gallery, and many other collaborators.
Please register for each panel and workshop you are interested in attending!
Saturday October 24th
10:30am – Collaborative Theater: Devising 101
Presented by Da Vinci Art Alliance10:30am –Membership Structure Bootcamp
Presented by Obvious Agency12:30pm – What power does an image hold?
Presented by cinéSPEAK2:00pm- Building Sustainable Relationships as an Artist
Presented by Luster Gallery + Studio2:30pm – Out of School: Art Students, Emerging Artists, and Cooperative Spaces
Presented by Practice Gallery4:00pm- Stitching with Intention
Presented by Tiger Strikes Asteroid5:00pm – Passenger Seat by Johannes Barfield
Presented by Tiger Strikes Asteroid
Sunday October 25th
11:00am Eating Its Own Boundaries: Termite TV Collective’s Theories of Change and Media Activism
Presented by Termite TV11:00am– from every river to every sea: screening and artist talk with Rami George and Sam Rise
Presented by Asian Arts Initiative11:00am- Biodata Perturbations: Stimulus <-> Response with Sam Cusumano & Raúl Romero
Presented by BYO Printmaking Collaborative1:30pm- Moral & Ethics: Staying True to a Subculture
Presented by All Mutable1:30pm – Everything is Terminal: Rituals for Grieving Artistic Endings
Presented by The Bearded Ladies Cabaret3:30pm- In Memoriam: Lessons Learned From The Footsteps We Follow
Presented by AUTOMAT
Getting There
In the spirit of accessibility and equity, if travel costs are a barrier, we may be able to help. We have $100 stipends available for individual registrants living in Pennsylvania, not based in Philadelphia on a limited first-come, first-served basis. Please email “collectivefutures.info@gmail.com” to request travel support.
Parallel Play will be hosted at Asian Arts Iniative in spaces on the 3rd and 2nd floor.
Accessibility Information from Asian Arts Initiative
Asian Arts Initiative is designed as a mobility accessible facility, with access to all public floors and spaces, and seating accommodations for programmed events. Both non-gendered and individually isolating restrooms are available on each floor, all equipped with changing stations. If contacted in advance, we will make every attempt to fulfill requests for reasonable accommodations such as access to assistive technology devices and materials in alternative formats. More specific accessibility information to follow.