CC Fest has grown from a rainy-day, 40-person workshop at NYU ITP in October 2016 into a regular part of creative-coding community. Over a decade, the festival’s free, inclusive model—anchored by Dan Shiffman’s founding question, “As a _____ why should I care about creating software?”—scaled from city-based gatherings in NYC, LA, and SF to globally accessible virtual programs. Backed by the Processing Foundation’s in support and intertwined with K-12 systems (CS4ALL), university partners, and the broader Processing Community Day network, CC Fest grew its reach. Now the event continues as self-funded event. This timeline traces that evolution: the early track-based pedagogy and teacher networks, the multi-city expansion and signature keynotes, the pandemic-era reinvention on Zoom Events, and the recent synthesis of AI/ML, accessibility, and student leadership that defines the present.
| Date | Location | Details |
|---|---|---|
| October 2016 | NYU ITP, New York City, USA | Inaugural CC Fest with 40 participants at NYU ITP. Organizers Saber Khan, Danny Fenjves, and Stephen Lewis introduced a three‑track format. Keynote by Dan Shiffman emphasized tool neutrality. Sessions covered p5.js basics (Khan), animation/conditionals (Fenjves), hardware integration (Lewis), geometric aesthetics (Marius Watz), game sprites (Katy Garnier) and OpenProcessing (Sinan Ascioglu). The event launched the Processing Educators Google Group and p5share platform, laying the foundation for expansion. |
| April 2017 | NYU MAGNET, Brooklyn, NY, USA | Second CC Fest (#2) at NYU MAGNET offered full‑day programming, refining the workshop template. Teachers developed classroom projects while students built creative portfolios, signaling the festival’s scalability. |
| Nov 12, 2017 | NYU ITP, New York City, USA | Fall 2017 CC Fest returned to NYU ITP with a full‑day event of interactive digital art, animation and games. Documented by Ellen Nickels and Dominic Barrett, it included teacher professional development sessions. |
| May 5, 2018 | NYU MAGNET, Brooklyn, NY, USA | Spring 2018 CC Fest at NYU MAGNET expanded to Brooklyn. Workshops covered p5.js fundamentals, interactive web art and teacher sessions, testing accessibility across NYC’s boroughs. |
| Sept 2018 | UCLA Design Media Arts, Los Angeles, USA | CC Fest LA debuted at UCLA’s Design Media Arts department, led by Casey Reas and connecting to Processing’s academic origins. Faculty including Qianqian Ye and Lauren McCarthy guided workshops. Documentation highlighted new West Coast momentum. |
| Oct 2018 | San Francisco Friends School, San Francisco, USA | CC Fest SF established a Bay Area hub at the progressive San Francisco Friends School. Inclusive workshops on creative coding and generative art strengthened CC Fest’s West Coast presence. |
| Nov 2018 | NYU ITP, New York City, USA | The fall 2018 CC Fest returned to NYU ITP, continuing the annual rhythm of fall programming and deepening teacher networks. |
| Jun 8, 2019 | NYU MAGNET, Brooklyn, NY, USA | CC Fest NYC’s June 2019 event at NYU MAGNET featured a keynote by Maya Man on contemporary identity and online performance. Workshops explored interactive art, generative graphics and creative coding for play. |
| Oct 19, 2019 | San Francisco Friends School, San Francisco, USA | CC Fest SF 2019 at San Francisco Friends School strengthened Bay Area engagement with sessions on creative coding, generative visuals and interactive installations. |
| Oct 27, 2019 | Crossroads School, Santa Monica, USA | CC Fest LA 2019 at Crossroads School extended West Coast programming with workshops in Processing, p5.js and interactive art. |
| Dec 8, 2019 | NYU ITP (2 MetroTech Center), Brooklyn, NY, USA | The final pre‑pandemic CC Fest (10 AM–3 PM) returned to NYU ITP. ITP students volunteered, supporting sessions and guiding participants. The event formalized volunteer roles, strengthening mentorship between university and K‑12 attendees. |
| Jul 11, 2020 | Virtual (Zoom) | First virtual CC Fest, running 2–5 PM ET. The 3‑hour online festival raised donations for the TRANSIT ART youth program and introduced breakout rooms and chat‑based collaboration, opening participation worldwide. |
| Jan 24, 2021 | Virtual (Zoom) | January 2021 virtual CC Fest (3 PM EST) featured keynotes from Cassie Tarakajian (p5.js Web Editor creator) and Jordan Harrod (Harvard‑MIT PhD student). Twelve workshops covered p5.js fundamentals, Python, Hydra live coding, AI/ML, ethics and game development. The schedule used 45‑minute sessions and 15‑minute community show‑and‑tell breaks with tiered tickets for revenue sharing. |
| Jan 30, 2022 | Virtual (Zoom) | January 2022 virtual CC Fest refined the festival’s virtual format. Keynotes by Kate Hollenbach and Qianqian Ye focused on creative tool design and inclusive pedagogy. |
| Jun 18, 2022 | Virtual (Zoom) | June 2022 virtual CC Fest (12 PM–4 PM EST) featured keynotes J. Khadijah Abdurahman (‘Ode to Playfulness’) and Frieda McAlear (‘Rematriating Tech’). Workshops included Emily Thomforde’s AI gesture recognizers, GenZ(ine) collaborative profiles, color with Joshua Davis and Processing/Arduino integration. International presenters joined from diverse time zones. |
| Jan 28, 2023 | The Dalton School, New York City, USA | First in‑person CC Fest since 2016; 17th overall iteration. Held at The Dalton School (13th & 14th floors) with 180 registrants from 30 institutions and 25+ educators. Co‑organized by Dalton students (Theodore Chan, Elizabeth Heller, Arjun Kalbag, Daniel Wagman) under CS Department Chair Saber Khan. Keynotes were Dan Shiffman and Christy Crawford. Representatives from Girls Who Code, Code.org and NYC CSforAll participated. |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Virtual (Zoom) | March 2023 virtual CC Fest (12–3 PM EST) featured keynotes Rachel Uwa and Neema Githere. Workshops covered XR tools (LaJuné McMillian), ambient websites (Chia Amisola), WebGL mode development (Dave Pagurek), the Creative Machine library (Aarati Akkapeddi), and sessions on drawing shapes, GIF sharing, Posenet gestures, and more. |
| Jan 28, 2024 | The Dalton School, New York City, USA | 2024 in‑person CC Fest (10 AM–3 PM EDT) at The Dalton School. Keynote Joshua Davis (IBM Watson visualization, generative artist) and neta bomani. Eleven workshops ranged from Jackie Liu’s ‘HTML Diary Comics’ to Erim Keresteci’s ML image classification via Google Colaboratory. Student co‑organizers (Ellie, Theo, Arjun, Daniel, Erim, Marcus) led the event. Sessions addressed data ethics, entertainment lighting control and accessible creative coding. |
| Jul 21, 2024 | Virtual (Zoom) | July 2024 virtual CC Fest (12–3 PM EST) had keynotes John Maeda and Beatriz Lozano. Workshops included Emily Thomforde’s ‘Infoglassics’, Shawn Patrick Higgins’s open‑source classroom coding, Pedro Sanches’s ‘Beyond the Browser’ using APIs and n8n, Akanksha Vyas’s ML face interaction with ml5.js, and sessions on Python, blogging, typography, game design and generative phenakistoscope. |
| Mar 15, 2025 | Virtual (Zoom) | March 2025 virtual CC Fest (9 AM–1:30 PM PST) presented keynotes Saskia Freeke (daily generative art practice), Olivia Jack (Hydra creator) and Kawandeep Virdee (Google Labs). Workshops ranged from Kofi Oduro’s data storytelling to Siiri Tännler’s live‑coded brushes (paint.stx), Shristi Singh’s pose‑performance, M DeNardo’s ‘Which Code Witch: Live Spells’ for children, Teachable Hydra introduction, p5.fab 3D printing, and Web‑Spinner for no‑code generative design. |
| Sep 28, 2025 | Virtual (Zoom) | Virtual CC Fest scheduled for September 28, 2025 (9 AM–1:30 PM PT) as the 18th iteration. Announced via email, the event promises new keynotes and workshops, continuing CC Fest’s global accessibility and creative coding community. |
Summary
Taken together, these events chart more than a series of workshops—they map a durable educational infrastructure that reshaped how creative coding is taught and shared. CC Fest’s decade of practice created pathways from middle school classrooms to universities and professional arts/tech communities, pairing open-source tools with inclusive pedagogy, accessibility, and social-justice lenses. With sustained funding, a maturing leadership ecosystem, and deep curricular integration, the initiative now operates as a global learning commons: one that elevates diverse voices, embraces new modalities (from ML to XR), and keeps community at the center. As CC Fest enters its second decade, it remains a model for how grassroots experimentation can scale into a resilient, world-spanning movement for creative, accessible technology education.