Theatre artist Keltie Forsyth joins PuSh International Performing Arts Festival's leadership team
Producer, playwright, and director Tom Arthur Davis takes on interim director of programming for Gabrielle Martin’s maternity leave
Keltie Forsyth. Photos by Pedro Augusto Meza
Tom Arthur Davis
Gabrielle Martin
THE PUSH INTERNATIONAL Performing Arts Festival has announced the appointment of Vancouver theatre artist Keltie Forsyth as its new director of operations.
She joins a collaborative leadership team comprised of Margo Kane (director of Indigenous initiatives) and theatre producer, playwright, and director Tom Arthur Davis, who has just been appointed interim director of programming during Gabrielle Martin’s maternity leave. (This week, PuSh permanently appointed Martin to director of programming.)
Forsyth was selected by a hiring committee consisting of PuSh board members Selena Couture, Sadira Rodrigues, and Johnny Trinh. “We are excited to support [Keltie] as she shapes the organization’s future with her knowledge, experience and commitment to centering practices of care,” the committee said in a joint statement released today. “Her abilities to organize systems, handle budgets and envision strategic plans - honed at multiple innovative arts organizations - will be valuable to our Festival's next steps. Additionally, her work to responsibly develop collaboration across differences in both artistic and administrative practices aligns greatly with PuSh's core values.”
Forsyth began her career in Edmonton as an arts manager and programmer, then completed her MFA in theatre directing at UBC. She’s since worked in Vancouver as an arts manager, freelance director, instructor, grant writer, and associate artistic director of both Pi Theatre and Ensemble Theatre Company. Most recently, Forsyth was on the team at Vancouver Creative Space Society, supporting the companies and artists who use Progress Lab 1422.
Jason Dubois had left the collaborative leadership team in February of this year.
Martin has curated the 2023 season, saying in a statement today, “We are prioritizing innovative works that have a sense of necessity; that wake us up or offer new dreams for the disenchanted. Delivering a festival takes a community, and PuSh continues to centre collaboration.”
The collaborative leadership model launched last year by PuSh has been one of the key ways that the organization has worked through structural change after controversy that hit during the pandemic. A new board, formed in March 2021, moved forward with a mandate to rebuild the organization, which included hiring Martin and going through a community consultation process. Amid that process, PuSh has made its goal to include working artists on the leadership team. Martin has worked extensively in aerial circus and contemporary dance artist and is also an artistic producer who holds a Masters of Arts in arts and cultural management; Davis cofounded Pandemic Theatre and has directed shows like Jivesh Parasram’s Take d Milk, Nah?; and Kane is a longtime theatre artist who is the founder and artistic managing director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance, which puts on the Talking Stick Festival.
The 19th edition of the PuSh Festival will take place from January 19 to February 5, 2023. Full programming details are to be announced mid-November.
Keltie Forsyth, Gabrielle Martin, and Tom Arthur Davis. Photo by Pedro Augusto Meza
Related Articles
