Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, & the Arts

2026 Division 10 Annual Conference

Join us for our third annual conference featuring cutting-edge research, keynote talks by leading international researchers, networking events, mentoring opportunities, and pre-conference workshops.

Important Dates
Call for Submissions
Conference Schedule
Registration
Hotel & Travel

2026 Program at a Glance

  • 2:00 – 5:00 PM: Preconference Sessions (additional registration required)

    • Network Science in Creativity Research (Council Bluffs)

    • Art Museum Experiences for Connection and Transformation: A (Playful) Workshop on Mapping Impact, Aligning Outcomes, and Designing Interventions (Elkhorn AB)

    5:30 – 9:00 PM: Registration & Social Reception (Big Blue)

  • 8:00 – 9:00 AM: Coffee & Networking

    9:00 – 9:30 AM: Conference Welcome (Missouri/Platte)

    9:30 – 10:20 AM: Arnheim Award Address: John Kounios (Missouri/Platte)

    10:30 – 11:00 AM: Break

    11:00 – 11:50 AM: Parallel Sessions

    • Symposium: Advances in Creativity Assessment (Missouri/Platte)

    • Symposium: Play, Synchrony, and Dramatic Connection: Experimental and Applied Studies on Creative Interaction and Well-Being (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Impacts of Creativity (Elkhorn AB)

    12 noon – 1:00 PM: Lunch (included in registration) (Atrium & The Landing)

    1:00 – 2:20 PM: Poster Session (Big Blue)

    2:30 – 3:20 PM: Parallel Sessions

    • Symposium: On Stimulating Creativity: Evidence from Experimental and Interventional Studies (Missouri/Platte)

    • Individual Talks: Creative Expression (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Social Art Experiences (Elkhorn AB)

    3:30 – 4:20 PM: Parallel Sessions

    • Publishing Panel (Missouri/Platte)

    • Individual Talks: Conceptual Advances in Creativity (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Creative Processes and Mechanisms (Elkhorn AB)

    4:30 – 5:20 PM: Student Showcase (Missouri/Platte)

    5:30 – 6:30 PM: Student Professional Development Roundtable (Students Only!) (Location TBD)

  • 8:00 – 9:00 AM: Coffee & Networking

    9:00 – 9:50 AM: Berlyne Award Addresses: Ahmed M. Abdulla Alabbasi & Sue Hyeon Paek (Missouri/Platte)

    10:00 – 10:50 AM: Parallel Sessions

    • Grants Panel (Missouri/Platte)

    • Individual Talks: Perceptions About Creativity (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Aesthetic Experiences (Elkhorn AB)

    11:00 – 11:30 AM: Break

    11:30 AM – 12:20 PM: Parallel Sessions

    • Symposium: Understanding effects of engagement with art: The how and what of meaning-making (Missouri/Platte)

    • Symposium: Psychology of Humor (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Creativity in Youth Education (Elkhorn AB)

    12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch (included in registration) (Atrium & The Landing)

    1:30 – 2:50 PM: Poster Session (Big Blue)

    3:00 – 3:50 PM: Parallel Sessions

    • Symposium: Incursions into the Nomological Network of Creativity: Emotions, Insight, and Curiosity (Missouri/Platte)

    • Individual Talks: Conceptual Advances in the Psychology of Art and Aesthetics (Council Bluffs)

    • Individual Talks: Psychology of Music (Elkhorn AB)

    4:00 – 5:00 PM: Business Meeting and Conference Closing (Missouri/Platte)

View Detailed Program

2026 Pre-conference Sessions

We are pleased to announce two pre-conference sessions on Thursday, March 12, 2026, before the start of the annual research conference. These sessions are held in the afternoon before the Thursday social hour (exact times pending).

Network Science in Creativity Research

Yoed N. Kenett

Network science is based on mathematical graph theory, offering a multidisciplinary quantitative approach to represent complex systems as networks. Over the past two decades, it has been increasingly applied in creativity research, across cognitive, personality, psychometric, and neural domains. This workshop will provide an introduction, basic network tools, and hands-on experience on network analysis in creativity research, for anyone interested in such multidisciplinary creativity research.

Art Museum Experiences for Connection & Transformation: A (Playful) Workshop on Mapping Impact, Aligning Outcomes, & Designing Interventions

Aleksandra Sherman & Aleksandra Igdalova

Explore how activity-based art experiences can foster engagement, creativity, transformation, and connection. In this play-inspired, hands-on workshop, psychologists and museum professionals will co-design creative interventions, reflect on shared outcomes, and consider how these can be meaningfully studied and applied in real-world museum contexts, with shared visual and written outputs.

To attend, please select the appropriate pre-conference ticket in addition to your conference registration when registering via Eventbrite.

Sessions run concurrently; attendance at both is not possible.

Conference Schedule

The conference runs Thursday-Saturday, March 12-14, 2026 in downtown Omaha.


Thursday, March 12

Daytime: Pre-Conference Sessions (separate fee)

Evening: Welcome Social Hour


Friday, March 13

Full-Day Programming

Parallel Sessions


Saturday, March 14

Full-Day Programming

Parallel Sessions

This is an in-person-only event with no remote or streaming options.

Important Dates

Sept. 1, 2025 Submissions open

Oct. 17, 2025 Pre-conference session proposals

Nov. 7, 2025 Main submission deadline

Nov. 21, 2025 Main submission decisions

Jan. 23, 2026 Last call deadline (posters only)

Jan. 23, 2026 Last call deadline (posters only)

Jan. 31, 2026 Early bird registration deadline

Feb. 9, 2026 Hotel discount expires

Feb. 28, 2026 Standard registration deadline

Mar. 12-14, 2026 Conference dates

Registration

Registration opens Fall 2025 and is managed through Eventbrite.

Register for the Div 10 2026 Conference

Early Bird
until Jan. 31

Standard
Feb. 1–28

Late
after Feb. 28

Students

$25

$35

$50

Early Career
<5 years of terminal degree

$75

$150

$250

Faculty & Professionals

$125

$250

$350

Students

Early Bird — until Jan. 31

$25

Standard — Feb. 1–28

$35

Late — after Feb. 28

$50

Early Career
<5 years of degree

Early Bird — until Jan. 31

$75

Standard — Feb. 1–28

$150

Late — after Feb. 28

$250

Faculty & Professionals

Early Bird — until Jan. 31

$125

Standard — Feb. 1–28

$250

Late — after Feb. 28

$350

Pre-conference registration is an optional “add on” in Eventbrite.

Students: $10 early, $20 standard | Non-students: $25 early, $50 standard

All presenters and attendees must register online. 
No on-site registration available.

Conference Hotel & Travel


Conference Hotel

Embassy Suites Downtown

Located in Omaha's vibrant Old Market district, within walking distance of museums, theaters, and the zoo.

Book by February 9, 2026 for discounted rates.

Book Hotel

Discount Applied


Getting to Omaha

Eppley Airfield (OMA)

International airport just a few miles
from the conference hotel.

List of airports with nonstop service to OMA.

The submission window has closed.

We look forward to welcoming your proposal next year.

For submission details from this year’s conference, please see below.

Submit Your Research

We welcome submissions on all areas of research related to the psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts from basic, applied, clinical, neurological, and educational perspectives. If your work might be a good fit for Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts or related journals, we invite you to submit!


SEE DETAILS BELOW

Submission Types

Thematic symposia

Individual talks

Student showcase presentations

Research posters

Submission Deadlines

November 7, 2025
Main deadline (all formats)

January 23, 2026
Last call (posters only)

Submit Your Research Proposal

  • Thematic Symposia (preferred format)
    Proposals should involve a cluster of 3-5 related research talks organized around an important topic (50 minutes total). Symposia presenting empirical findings are strongly preferred, and data collection/analysis must be complete at submission. Preference given to submissions featuring presenters from different career stages and institutions. Discussant roles are discouraged; panel discussions will not be considered.


    Individual Talks
    Individual talks present research in a compact format (7-10 minutes). Data collection/analysis must be complete at submission (no in-progress projects). The program committee will organize individual talks into thematic sessions (50 minutes total).


    Research Posters
    Posters present research using traditional paper or fabric posters (36" tall × 48" wide) on easels. Poster sessions are ideal for projects that are still in-progress at the time of the conference.


    Student Showcase (with cash prizes!)
    Students present their own research in 3 minutes with 1 PowerPoint slide. You must be a current student (undergraduate, MA, EdD, or PhD) and first author on the work. Cash prizes awarded to top presentations!

  • For Individual Talks, Posters, and Student Showcase:

    • Names of all authors

    • Name, affiliation, and career stage of presenting author

    • Title

    • Abstract (250-500 words) for peer review

    For Symposia:
    All information should be submitted by the symposium chair:

    • Chair's name, affiliation, career stage, and contact

    • Session title

    • Long session abstract (250-500 words) for peer review

    • Brief session abstract (500 characters) for program

    • For each talk: title, all author names, presenting author info (name, affiliation, career stage), and abstract (250-500 words)

    All submissions are managed through the Microsoft CMT system (free account required).

All submitters will receive decisions in time for early bird registration.

NEW!

Call for Pre-Conference Sessions

This year we're introducing 3-hour pre-conference sessions on
Thursday, March 12, before the evening social hour.

Want to host a session?
We welcome diverse proposals for educational workshops, training sessions, and special topics.

SEE DETAILS BELOW

  • The Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (APA Division 10) is pleased to invite submissions for pre-conference sessions to take place during the day of March 12, 2026 prior to the formal start of the conference

    These sessions should be of interest to a broad audience rather than for a small niche subset of conference attendees, and they can be scheduled for up to 3 hours. The format and contents of these sections can take a variety of forms, such as a workshop on methodological or analytic topics (e.g., using daily life research methods, completing meta-analysis), a roundtable for a specific topic interest group (e.g., creativity in education, art museum research), applied skill-building sessions (e.g., how to plan and conduct research in field settings, managing partnerships with community organizations), or other innovative formats that will be engaging to attendees.

  • To submit a proposal for a pre-conference session, the following information should be submitted on the online conference submission system:

    • Title

    • Name(s), affiliations, and career stages of session presenters/facilitators

    • A brief abstract (500 characters) for inclusion in the program

    • A long abstract (250 to 500 words) describing the session content, activities, and format for peer-review

    • Requested length (up to 3 hours)


    Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025

    All submissions are managed through the Microsoft CMT system (free account required).

Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025

Submit a Pre-Conference Session

Interested individuals are encouraged to reach out to the program chairs ahead of this deadline with any questions regarding content or format for their potential sessions.