Conversation Series Sofa Issues Winter 2026

Letter from the Editor

Second Year Crew: Sarah Luu, Gwen Hoeffgen, Domenic Toliver and Adela Cardona Puerta

In this Art + Social Practice Conversation Series, we returned to a question about context: What lies around the work? What shapes it, survives beyond it, and who gets to tell its story?

In Winter 2026, these questions are especially pressing. The world is more fractured. There are rising violences, an eroding democracy, and growing inequalities. And yet, relational practice has never felt more vital, as socially engaged work also demands that we ask: who preserves memory, who narrates histories, and how can we make sense of what is missing?

Across the conversations found in this collection of interviews, there are several emerging themes. Storytelling, memory, and alternative archives, including objects, recipes, photographs, and community pillars, become acts of resistance. Socially engaged practice, gathering, and care-centered frameworks are used as tools for dialogue and challenging power imbalances. We also are introduced to how spaces can allow for people to feel safe and supported, and how alternative pedagogies can show what’s included, left out, and repeated in histories. Sometimes, the lessons come from unexpected teachers, including animals, land, or rituals that invite reflection.

In this year of the horse, these interviews remind us that understanding collective struggle, reclaiming erased histories, and imagining more relational and just ways of living are inseparable. They invite us to hold contradictions, to stand at the edge of the unanswerable, and to work with curiosity, care, and imagination.

We hope you enjoy reading Winter 2026, SoFA Conversation Series.