“Festival Sites: The Civic and Collective Life of Curatorial Practice” An Interview with Deborah Pearson and Joyce Rosario

What follows is an interview (over Skype) conducted by Keren Zaiontz in December 2017 with Deborah Pearson, founder of Forest Fringe, an artist collective she runs with Ira Brand and Andy Field, in the UK, and Joyce Rosario, Associate Artistic Director of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver. At the time of this conversation, both Pearson and Rosario were in a series of remarkable professional transitions. Rosario, then Director of Programming, was at the helm of PuSh as interim Artistic Director. Norman Armour had stepped down from his position in April 2018, after fifteen years of managing the festival. Since the appointment, in 2019, of Franco Boni to Executive and Artistic Director, Rosario has moved into her current role as Associate. In 2017, Pearson and her Forest Fringe co-directors had rounded off ten years of curating groundbreaking work at the Edinburgh Festivals. They are currently producing an experimental narrative feature film, shot on location in the Channel Islands, as part of a company residency at ArtHouse Jersey.