Over at Carnegie Mellon University, they've announced they're doing a two-day festival called 'The Art Of Play', starring art-game neeto folks like Jason Rohrer (Passage, Gravitation), Heather Kelley (Kokoromi kru), and even former Ion Storm-er and current Spielberg co-conspirator Randy Smith.

It takes place on March 31th and April 1st, and here's the vision:

"The Art of Play brings together creators and researchers of games from multiple contexts - large AAA productions from major corporations, mid-sized developers completing work-for-hire projects, indies developed by small teams and released for free on the internet or for a small price on one of the many alternative distribution channels, and experimental games produced within an academic context."

What's more: "The aim of this Symposium and Arcade is to survey the games that brought us to this moment with their unique creative vision, and to frame the field moving forward, as game makers finally abandon the question "CAN games be art," and begin to ask ourselves in how many ways they WILL be."

Not really clear how open this event is to the public, but there's a PDF brochure, an afterparty (!), and the website art is by Cactus, so hey - the more events like this, the better.