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2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange

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Midwest Chapter

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SPE Midwest Chapter includes:
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin

Chair Emily Wiethorn
Treasurer Christopher Schneberger
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Upcoming Conference

Shifting Gears

College for Creative Studies / Cranbrook Academy of Art / Wayne State University - Detroit, MI | October 09 - October 11, 2025

The 2025 MWSPE Conference, Shifting Gears, invites photographers, educators, lens-based artists, and scholars to gather in Detroit—long celebrated as the Motor City—for a critical examination of transformation within photographic practice. Drawing on the city's rich history of innovation, industry, and reinvention, this conference examines how photographers are navigating change across technological, pedagogical, and cultural terrains. Through presentations, workshops, and exhibitions, Shifting Gears provides a platform to engage with the evolving methodologies and conceptual frameworks shaping the future of photographic education and image-making.

Shifting Gears is hosted by the College for Creative Studies, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Wayne State University. It is organized by faculty across Michigan and northern Ohio.

Conference goers will be given a complimentary pass to the Detroit Institute of Art.

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