Am Johal steps in as curator-in-residence at Indian Summer Festival

Former director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement will program around theme of Borderless Solidarities for July event

AM JOHAL WILL BE curator-in-residence for the 15th annual Indian Summer Festival, running from July 3 to 13, programming around the theme of Borderless Solidarities.

Johal, former director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and codirector of SFU's Community-Engaged Research Initiative, is a podcast host, author, and guest speaker who also played a role as chair of the Indian Summer Festival 2020–2023.

“I’m excited to collaborate, work with diverse voices, and engage with artists and writers and thinkers,” Johal said in the announcement today. “We will announce our 15th anniversary programming very soon.”

The 2025 theme, Borderless Solidarities, is aimed at reflecting on the power of arts and culture to face a divided world of closed borders, rising authoritarianism, and violence, with an emphasis on the urgency for alternative thinking and living.

The two-week festival held at venues around town looks at a wide range of arts through a South Asian lens, bringing in novelists, artists, musicians, and visionaries from Canada, South Asia, and elsewhere.

Featured

Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

Articles

All nine Beethoven symphonies, as Vancouver Symphony Orchestra unveils 2026-27 season

Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, and Augustin Hadelich among the soloists hitting the concert stage

Vancouver International Children’s Festival gets set to welcome everything from high-energy Danish dance to artful Korean doodling

Eighty shows in all, as Italy’s Teatro Telaio sets up an ARCHIPELAGO installation, plus pow-wow, hip-hop, and massive puppets

Heist, Death of a Salesman, Elf, and more as Arts Club unveils 15 shows for 2026–27

Next season includes high-camp spoof Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, Tracey Power’s premiere The Elvis Christmas Comeback Special, and the newly named Lindsay Family Stage

Vancouver Cantata Singers artistic director Paula Kremer to move to role of conductor emerita

The long-time vocalist, pianist, and conductor is set to pass on the baton at the end of the 2026–27 season

Studio 58 announces Paul Moniz de Sá as its new artistic director

The former head of Theatre, Music & Film at Arts Umbrella has worked across local stages and screens

A trio of big Italian favourites as Vancouver Opera unveils its 2026-27 season

Three B.C.-connected directors bring distinct visions to Tosca, The Barber of Seville, and La Traviata

Justine A. Chambers wins 2025 VIVA Award, while Lorna Brown receives 2025 Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize

Dance artist has explored gesture and her Black matrilineal heritage, while curator has made her mark at Artspeak Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and far beyond

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announces first European tour in April

Stops include a three-night residency at Austria’s Salzburg Easter Festival, as well as Croatia, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, and Germany

Eastside Arts Society secures funding to purchase its headquarters at 716 East Hastings

Vancouver City Council greenlights $2,665,000 for acquiring the property, with funds from the False Creek Flats Amenity Share Reserve

Fierce fiddling to contra dance, as Festival du Bois unveils program for March 6 to 8

Aleksi Campagne, Bagatelle, Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs, and the Jocelyn Pettit Band are among offerings at celebration of Maillardville’s francophone roots