Thursday, January 29, 2026

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9:30—10AM // Connection Café: Meet + Mingle

World Arts Centre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (See map)

Start your day with coffee, conversation, and connection. A daily morning hub for delegates to gather, check in, and ease into the Industry Series together.

10AM—12PM // Negotiating Care, Discomfort, and Responsibility in Producing and Presentation

World Arts Centre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

This session explores the evolving role of care in artistic creation, organizational practice and performance presentation—its radical potential, its limitations, and its misuse. As care becomes a more central value in our sector, how do we define it and how does it converse with rigour or entitlement. Together, we’ll explore the tensions between safety and discomfort, individual and collective needs, and the shifting definitions of responsibility—on stage, in the studio or office, and in the audience.

Facilitator: Brian Postalian

With speakers: Andrew Adridge, Melina Stinson, Starr Muranko, Tracy Gentles 

Meet the Speakers

Andrew Adridge (he/him)

Andrew Adridge is a Toronto-based arts administrator and multidisciplinary artist committed to
equity and industry reform. His work positions equity-deserving peoples and communities at the
centre of development, presentation, and policymaking. He is a past Metcalf Performing Arts
Intern, Co-Founder of the national collective Opera InReach, and has led programs at Banff
Centre for Arts and Creativity. He is currently the Managing Director of Volcano Theatre.

Melina Stinson (she/her)

Melina Stinson is an intimacy coordinator and movement artist based in Brussels. After a 15-year career as a contemporary dancer and teacher in Montréal, she has focussed her curiosity towards the interrelatedness of creative flow, agency, consent, the status quo, and the unknown. Through this evolving lens, she works in film, dance, and theatre in both creative and administrative environments.

Starr Muranko (she/her)

Starr Muranko is a dancer, choreographer, Mother, and Co-Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance whose work explores embodied stories and connections to land, ancestry, and memory. Her featured works have toured nationally and internationally. A longtime member of the Dancers of Damelahamid and Artist-in-Residence with Ballet BC, she also leads workshops on story and movement and honours her Omushkegowuk/Moose Cree, French, and German ancestry.

Tracy Gentles (she/her)

Tracy is the Artistic Director/CEO of SICK! Festival (UK). With over 20 years’ experience at the intersection of arts, health, and social justice, her work — driven by lived experience — amplifies critical voices underrepresented within the arts and broader society. Previously, Tracy was the founding Director of the structural support organisation Something To Aim For and the arts and health platform The Sick of the Fringe.

12:00—1:30PM // Catered Lunch

World Arts Centre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Enjoy a catered lunch between sessions — menu and details will be shared in advance.

12—1:30PM // IBPOC Lunch

The Fortress

A casual lunch for IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour) folks to gather, eat, and spend time together. This is a low-key opportunity to connect with peers, catch up, and share what’s been on your mind in an easy, conversational setting. There’s no agenda and no expectation to solve anything—just a chance to enjoy a meal, exchange stories, and be in one another’s company.

1:30—4PM // (Re)framing the international: a card game for arts workers 

World Arts Centre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

What does it mean to work internationally in today’s arts landscape? How do we balance artistic ambition with ecological, social, political and economic realities? Reframing the International invites participants to explore these questions through an interactive card game developed by Flanders Arts Institute. In small groups, artists and arts workers will “play” their way through scenarios that challenge assumptions about mobility, sustainability, and global exchange. Each round prompts reflection on real projects—identifying potential threats, and experimenting with new frameworks that prioritize care, equity, and multiple forms of value: artistic, human, social, economic, and natural. Expect lively discussion, creative problem-solving, and the chance to reimagine what international collaboration can look like in a shifting world.

Facilitated by Julia Reist

About Julia Reist

Julia Reist (she/her)

Julia Reist holds a master in Artistic Research and Art and Design in Social-Political Context. Since 2011, she works as a freelance researcher, dramaturg and art producer on a range of (inter)national projects. Julia is interested in looking at and working through collaborative practices as a way to unlearn and rethink current value-systems and non-inclusive structures. Since 2022 Julia works at the Flanders Arts Institute (Belgium) for sector support and international relations of performing arts.

4:30—6:30PM // Community Programming: Dance West Network Showcase

Scotiabank Dance Centre (See map)

Presented by Dance West Network and The Dance Centre.

Dance West Network showcase of 8 dynamic local artists is part of PuSh Industry Series Community Partner Programming 2026. Produced in partnership with The Dance Centre, Dance West Network offers an in-person showcase featuring the work of eight BC-based dance artists:

Alexandra Caprara 
Shion Skye Carter 
Generous Mess 
Nancy Lee
Nasiv Sall 
TEMPO Dance & Visual Art
Alex Wells 
Calder White 

About Dance West Network

Dance West Network: connecting artists and communities in motion is dedicated to connecting communities across British Columbia and beyond through dance. We support dance artists by nurturing their creative projects with professional development opportunities, tour and residency connections, workshops, online showcases, and resource materials. Our work focuses on increasing awareness and appreciation of contemporary dance, fostering opportunities for equity-seeking artists and audiences, and building connections among artists, presenters, and collaborators throughout BC. dancewest.net 

7PM // Performance: Remember that time we met in the future? (Lara Kramer)

Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (See map)

Running Time: 75 minutes, followed by a talkback

Remember that time we met in the future? unfolds within a transforming landscape of salvaged materials and shifting light—echoing both urban and land-based worlds. Four Indigenous artists travel through nonlinear time, guided by the intelligence of body, land, and spirit. Their movements and pulse trace connections across generations, an unfolding toward futures still forming.

Content note / advisories: Flickering lights, partial nudity

More show info

9PM // Performance: SLUGS (Creepy Boys // So.Glad Arts)

NEST (See Map)

Running Time: 60 minutes, followed by a talkback 

From the award-winning performance/comedy duo Creepy Boys comes SLUGS: a techno-punk concert, clown show and basement puppet nightmare about trying to have a good time while the world burns. Fusing DIY absurdity with electronic comedy songs and trash puppetry, this “brilliantly smart and beautifully stupid” hit from Edinburgh spirals from chaos into catharsis. For tonight, we are free.

Content note / advisories: For adult audiences; Nudity; representation of sexual violence, gun violence and self harm; coarse language; sexually explicit content with audience interaction; Flashing lights; haze; use of prop firearms 

More show info

9:30PM–Midnight // Festival Lounge Bar | Presented by GNW Scene Shop

The Post at 750 (See map)

After last year’s hit debut, the Festival Lounge Bar returns! We’ve once again transformed our office studio into a cozy late-night hub just for artists and industry delegates. Come unwind after performances with music, games, lite fare, and good company — the perfect place to mingle, relax, and keep the conversations flowing. Open nightly during the Industry Series.

Additional Festival Performances Available

7:30PM // Performance: Everything Has Disappeared (UNIT Productions // Mammalian Diving Reflex, in collaboration with The Chop)

York Theatre (See Map)

Running Time: 70 Min

A theatrical sleight of hand blending digital technology, illusion, and clever storytelling, Everything Has Disappeared reveals how Filipino labour quietly sustains the global economy. From ships to care homes to factory floors, the work transforms invisibility into revelation—with humour, wit, and wonder. Both playful and profound, it’s a conjuring act about what vanishes when we stop seeing.

Content note: Haze, flashing lights, audience interaction

More show info

7:30PM // Performance: askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ (Tyson Houseman)

The Roundhouse Performance Centre (See map)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Part live cinema, part ecological opera, askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ transforms a miniature film set into vast dreamlike mountainscapes unfolding in real time. Created and directed by nêhiyaw artist Tyson Houseman, this operatic multimedia performance merges live video, electroacoustic sound, and nehiyawewin song to explore cyclical, geologic notions of deep time and connections between land, memory, and future.

More show info