The OSACC 2026
We are looking forward to the Contributors Conference at The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio in October 2026. From October 22-24, members of the community will gather together for a conference to contribute to and discuss the challenges and issues within the Open Source Software for the Arts (OSSTA) ecosystem.
We are welcoming people who are current or potential contributors to the Open Source Software for the Arts communities. Contributors include those who are advocates, active forum participants, authors of documentation and tutorials, as well as those who contribute to the codebase or addons/libraries. We are especially interested in finding new or less visible community members and those who will bring new ideas and perspectives to our community.
The Contributors Conference is co-organized by the Clinic for Open Source Arts, The Arts and Humanities AI Institute, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, and hosted at the Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise. The 3-day event is focused on building and supporting open source tools for the arts and has three foci:
- Providing various OSSTA projects time and space to work and plan in-person
- Connecting OSSTA contributors across projects to have meta discussions about challenges, issues, and best practices
- Onboarding new contributors to OSSTA projects in a healthy and engaged way with focused training sessions and mentoring
There is no charge for attending. All food and drinks onsite will be provided for free. COSA is working to provide funding for the lodging and travel costs for as many attendees as possible. Accommodations and accessibility needs (e.g., childcare, large type printed materials, ASL interpreter, etc.) will be queried via the official registration form.
Sponsors are welcomed and would allow us to bring additional contributors. This might mean you are at an institution that can cover your costs and/or those of a peer or student. It could also mean a donation to help another participant attend. Please contact cosa@du.edu to discuss further.
If you have any other questions in the meantime, please get in touch!
Steering Committee:
- Chris Coleman, Director of COSA
- Laleh Mehran, Associate Director of COSA
- Jeremy Patterson, Senior Graphic Researcher, ACCAD