Reflecting on a Landmark Year: PuSh’s 2025 Impact Report

July 07, 2025

We’ve just published our 2025 Impact Report, highlighting a 20th anniversary Festival that gave us so much to celebrate. As we work towards our full 2026 programming announcement in the fall, we invite you to follow along with the sneak peeks of partner presentations that continue to be announced throughout the summer, shared through our newsletter and social media @pushfestival.

If you’re inspired by what you see in our impact report, we hope you’ll consider joining our Patrons Circle with a tax-receiptable donation to PuSh to help bring the 2026 PuSh Festival to life—be part of the experience January 2-February 8! Read on for thoughts from Artistic Director Gabrielle Martin on the 20th PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

As we reflect on the 2025 Festival, it’s clear that this year has been a landmark celebration, not only of our 20th anniversary but of the audacity, vulnerability, and resilience inherent in live performance. In a world where connection and authenticity can often feel fleeting, we reaffirmed the power of live arts to transport us to new dimensions, creating spaces for play, reflection, and collective regeneration. This Festival embraced alterity, exploring fluidities in gender, identity, and culture, and shifting paradigms for how we relate to our environment and each other.

The 2025 Festival also underscored our ongoing commitment to inclusivity and internationalism. We made significant investments in work from the Global South, anchored national tours for racialized trans and gender-non-binary artists, and nurtured new collaborations with cultural organizations like Latincouver and We The Roses Foundation. Guided by consultation and reflection, we expanded accessibility initiatives through Accessible PuSh and introduced new cultural protocols, ensuring safer spaces of care and kinship. 

This year’s success was made possible by the tireless dedication of our incredible staff, who ensured that each performance and interaction was infused with thoughtfulness and intention. Their contributions, along with the sold-out performances and an electrifying atmosphere of public engagement, made this year’s Festival truly unforgettable.

This was also a year of transition, marked by the departure of Keltie Forsyth as Director of Operations and Dr. Margo Kane as Director of Indigenous Initiatives. We welcomed Annie Clarke as incoming Managing Director, Yvette Nolan as Board President, and Justin Neal as Vice-President. We are grateful for the incredible contributions of our outgoing staff and excited to realize the vision of this new leadership team as we move into PuSh’s next chapter, carrying forward the lessons, connections, and artistic expressions that defined 2025. 

Thank you to the artists, audiences, donors, sponsors, community partners, board members and staff who made this year’s Festival possible. Your participation made PuSh 2025 the place to be—and together, we’ve created something that will continue to reverberate far beyond the Festival.

With gratitude,

Gabrielle Martin
Artistic Director