Am Johal steps into new role as executive artistic director of Indian Summer Festival

Former director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement was the fest’s curator-in-residence for 2025

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL has just appointed Am Johal as its new executive artistic director, joining executive managing director Laura June Albert in a co-leadership model.

Johal was curator-in-residence for the 2025 Indian Summer Festival, whose theme was “Borderless Solidarities”. Before that, from 2020 to 2023, he served as chair of the festival society’s board of directors.

A cultural leader, writer, and community builder, Johal was previously director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and founded and hosted the Below the Radar podcast, a show that fostered dialogue between diverse cultural communities. He has published four books with collaborators.

“I’m thrilled to be carrying on with the Indian Summer Festival—a space that has continually redefined what a festival for South Asian arts can be,” Johal said in today’s announcement. “The festival’s spirit of curiosity, equity, and artistic excellence resonates deeply with me.”

In his new role, Johal will guide the festival’s artistic vision and curatorial direction.

The festival was founded in 2011 by Sirish Rao and Laura Byspalko as a platform for South Asian arts and culture that sparks intercultural dialogue, hosting a cross-disciplinary range of music, literary events, dance, visual arts, and more. Rao and Byspalko stepped down in 2023.

As it prepares for its upcoming season, Indian Summer Festival will present leading South Asian and diasporic artists, initiate provocative intercultural conversation, and highlight accessibility and inclusion as part of the richness of Metro Vancouver’s cultural ecology.

Indian Summer Festival is set to return for its 16th edition in July 2026.

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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.

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