Arts Integrator: Reach Your Goals at SXSW EDU 2025

SXSW EDU, more than anything else, is a place for inspiration. An experience where you will get out of it, what you put into it. You are the architect of your own experience, and you are bound to find inspiration and opportunity wherever it takes you. As long as you plan ahead, you are guaranteed to find speakers, workshops, sessions, events, and even attendees that resonate with you.

If you're looking for some guidance on how to approach your schedule in order to support various creative facets: whether it's reading, writing, storytelling, music or even incorporating arts into your work and teachings, our programming this year has something for creatives looking to try something new, or for a place to start.

Meet People Who Share Your Passion

If you're into books or becoming more of a bookworm, start your SXSW EDU by attending Meet Up Book Lovers Unite! Join Becky Calzada and Carolyn Foote for a conversation on all things banned books, popular education titles, and escape reads. This is perfect for readers who are looking for their next title to read or simply want to rave about what they're currently reading.

For fellow gamers or aspiring gamers, the Gaming x EDU Meet Up is a perfect way to meet like-minded educators. Here, you can meet educators who use gaming as a part of their practice. You can swap stories, get recommendations, and bring something new to implement into your classroom or even your personal life.

If you want to branch into larger-scale issues rooted in advancing creativity within education as a whole, attend the Creative Youth Development Funders Meet Up to understand the impact of creative skill-building for the youth, and how funders can leverage this when grantmaking, discussing failure, transparency, and opportunity.

Find the Intersections Between Arts & Education

Don’t miss the exciting Workshop Be Curious: The Fusion of Grammy Winning Hip Hop & Science as they pose the question “What happens when Grammy-award winning hip hop artists intersect with a leading science institution?” Walking you through a case study, and guiding you through an interactive workshop, you will work to unravel the potential of hidden overlap. The focus of this session is to remain curious and celebrate the beauty of removing our set definitions of what one expects something to be and instead, accept and embrace the unexpected.

Current to the times of modern-day creative expression, podcasting has become somewhat of a newer art. This year’s Special Program Mic Check: Podcasting with NPR, The Bell, & PBS News SRL, spotlights ways that podcasting gives students agency and provides an introduction to podcasting and audio journalism as a form of media literacy and storytelling. This ever-growing creative outlet is led by production pros, and student journalists alongside NPR, The Bell, and PBS News.

There’s Nothing Like a Good Film

Explore an array of mediums that explore education such as our film and performance lineup. The film “ULTIMATE CITIZENS” will be screened at SXSW EDU and will include a post-screening Q&A, and stands as a touching film following school counselor, Jamshid Khajavi, who converges and unites topics of conflict resolution, and sex education, while building a world-class Ultimate Frisbee team for immigrant children arriving in Seattle. He stands as an outsider who helps kids cope with grief and loss through love and support.

Another film to be screened you won’t want to miss is “UNTAPPED: Closing America's Opportunity Gap”, a film that follows what it takes for different students to compete for Fortune 500 internships and aims to show how we as a culture, along with industries, should move forward towards skill-based hiring. Saving space, and shedding light on the young and passionate talent working towards their goals, without the opportunities they need to succeed.

Amongst the powerful and touching films SXSW EDU is screening this year, there’s also a great lineup of performances to explore. As you take in loads of information and find that you need to re-center yourself, remember, that music is great therapy. Join singer-songwriter and guitarist Jill Sobule at Jill Sobule Presents: Songs from Fck 7th Grade & More. Sobule is known for her hits “Supermodel, (the original) from the movie Clueless, Kissed a Girl, and the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway show “Fck 7th Grade.” She will be performing a lineup of her songs, diving into how they came to be, followed by an interactive song-writing opportunity with the crowd.

More Sessions to Explore

• Artivism: The Power of Art to Inspire & Change the World
• Building the Next Generation of Black Ballerinas
• Roundtable: Amplifying Underrepresented Voices in Arts Education
• How Popular Media Can Help Kids Navigate the Climate Crisis
• Three Innovators Discuss Books, Media, & Entrepreneurship

Don't Forget!

• Read SXSW EDU’s blogs for more recommendations geared toward your goals.
• Research and favorite sessions to build your schedule.
• Download the SXSW EDU mobile app.
• Set tangible, specific goals.
• Come with an open mind, and embrace the unexpected.
• Get inspired.

See You at SXSW EDU 2025

Registration is open for SXSW EDU 2025! Book your hotel early for the best rates and hotel options March 3-6, 2025 in downtown Austin.

Sign up for SXSW EDU email updates, check out the News feed, watch videos, and follow us on Bluesky, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok to get the most up-to-date information.

Photo by Tico Mendoza