Imagining America bids farewell to UC Davis at 2026 National Gathering

Some 400 artists, scholars and students convened for the organization’s final national event before it moves to Penn State

By MICHELLE BEKHTEL— campus@theaggie.org

This past weekend, the UC Davis campus hosted the 2026 Imagining America National Gathering, bringing together nearly 400 public scholars, artists, community organizers and students. Featuring more than 70 workshops, panel discussions and plenary talks, the three-day conference marked the end of Imagining America’s 10-year term as headquartered at UC Davis.

Centered on the theme, “Tides of Transition: Restoring Collective Spirit in Troubled Times,” the conference focused on how creative arts and humanities can address political crises, environmental issues and institutional shifts. The Oct. 23 to 25 national conference is Imagining America’s (IA) last hosted at UC Davis before the organization moves its national headquarters to the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) next summer.

Imagining America is a national consortium of around 70 higher education and cultural organizations dedicated to supporting community-engaged public scholarship and the arts. The organization operates on a rotational host model, placing its national headquarters at a member university for five-year terms, renewable once for up to 10 years at a single school.

Following host terms at the University of Michigan and Syracuse University, IA established its administrative offices at UC Davis in 2017 on Third Street, near the eastern edge of campus.

“The goal of Imagining America really is to make space for community-engaged scholarship, arts, and other ways of knowing and making knowledge within the university,” IA Communications Director Anuj Vaidya said.

Vaidya first began attending IA conferences in 2017, when he was an incoming UC Davis graduate student in performance studies. He later joined IA as a full-time staff member in 2024. 

Vaidya noted that while previous host institutions focused heavily on civic education, UC Davis has served as a center for expanding arts-based public scholarship. He said that a primary objective during IA’s decade at Davis has been recognizing non-academic community members as experts in collaborative research.

“Over here at UC Davis, we've really been focused on the creative arts and creativity, and how to use creative processes to really bring about this campus culture change,” Vaidya said.

The conference agenda differed from traditional academic meetings, prioritizing interactive sessions, art installations and field visits over paper presentations.

Programming opened Friday with a presentation by Wintun culture bearer Diana Almendariz on cultural burning and regional land stewardship, followed by a keynote address by author and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Attendees then participated in a musical procession through the UC Davis Arboretum to the conference center, accompanied by 18 local musicians performing live.

Over the weekend, attendees participated in interactive art exhibits at the Buehler Alumni Center, storyboarding workshops on ecological grief and discussions on artificial intelligence policies in higher education. On Saturday afternoon, conference participants visited local partner organizations across the region, including the Davis Arts Center, the Yolo Basin Foundation and the UC Davis Student Farm.

Perrin Teal, an art and design educator attending the conference for a third year, said that the gathering’s structure encourages direct participation.

“There are so many people thinking about the link between education and scholarship and the way that you would enact those out in the world,” Teal said. “It's very unique in terms of academic conferences because there is a lot of embodied practice and acknowledgment of different ways of knowing.”

With the National Gathering concluded, IA staff will spend the next eight months preparing to transition the national headquarters to Penn State on June 30, 2027. Although the physical office on Third Street will close, UC Davis will remain a member of the national consortium. Local collaborative projects will also continue after the move, including the “Good Fire, Living Water” exhibit currently running at the Davis Arts Center through Nov. 13.

Looking to the future, Vaidya emphasized that the connections established during IA's decade on campus will remain intact.

“All those relationships that have been spawned in these 10 years will continue, even if Imagining America leaves,” Vaidya said. “The work of imagination and of building community will continue.”

Written by: Michelle Bekhtel — campus@theaggie.org