Global Perspectives: Josephine Ridge on Arts Leadership and ISPA 2026 New York Congress

Leading Through Global Perspectives: Josephine Ridge on Arts Leadership and ISPA 26 New York Congress Focus on Resilience

In an increasingly connected yet complex world, arts leaders are navigating unprecedented challenges while fostering international collaboration and cultural exchange. As one of the co-chairs of ISPA 26 New York Congress, Josephine brings a unique perspective shaped by her extensive international experience across Australia, Canada, and beyond, combined with her leadership role at the Banff Centre. Read on to discover how global perspectives shape effective arts leadership and why resilience became the defining theme for this year's Congress.

Your career has spanned continents from Australia to Canada with deep focus on the arts in diverse cultural contexts, how has this international perspective shaped your approach to leadership?

I think perhaps the first thing to say is that I have worked in a whole range of art forms and disciplines. I've worked for companies that have had extensive international touring schedules and also worked with international festivals. Of course, each of those specific areas has some differences, but there are always going to be similarities.

Having had a breadth of experience, one of the things that I have noticed is that in terms of leadership style, in terms of working with and collaborating with people, the similarities really outweigh any specific cultural or regional differences. I think that's partly because those of us who spend our lives working in the arts share so many values and have so many foundational principles and beliefs in what we do—belief in the arts and the importance of culture, and the importance of working with artists to help them share their voices and share their work.

I think that deeply rooted foundation impacts and influences the leadership style of so many of us wherever we happen to be. But another aspect is that working in an international arena, makes you really appreciate the value of the various cultural perspectives and political perspectives that come into play, which are either directly affecting or impacting the perspectives of people across the world in different areas. That has to lead to a thoughtful and tolerant response to difference. That is where there's great interest—when we're talking together and we're people from different places, it always creates such an interesting dynamic. It should foster respect, it should foster curiosity, it should foster an understanding of the importance of difference and valuing that. That really has to impact the way we lead as leaders, because we need to instill both those foundational values that I talked about with the respect for difference. Those two things combined must surely inform how we work as leaders in the arts.

You are one of the two co-chairs of the ISPA 26 Congress - "Resilience: A Global Dialogue," can you share how this theme was chosen and why resilience felt like the right focus? How might the insights from your work at the Banff Centre inform the conversations at the Congress?

I think it was very clear as soon as we started talking as a committee and with the ISPA team that we needed to find a way to directly address the challenges and complexities that are being faced by all of us around the world to different degrees. In doing that, the question then became: how do we do that in a way where we are looking for the positive, looking for the areas of constructive action, looking for areas where we can develop topics and themes that are looking ahead rather than perhaps feeling overwhelmed by some of the things which are going on politically and culturally around us? That very quickly leads to a concept of resilience—needing to understand where we are and what is influencing the world around us at the moment, and then saying, "Okay, let's sit up. Let's talk to each other. Let's find the best ways through this through dialogue."

The Banff Centre has a long history of commissioning and presenting work but is also recognized as a significant educational institution. How important is the educational component today and how is it manifested?

The Banff Centre is a post-secondary institution, so training and providing developmental professional opportunities and creative opportunities for artists through the training programs that we run is the raison d'être for the Banff Centre's existence. The training programs that we run are aimed at artists at all stages of their careers, and I feel really strongly about the importance of that. Artists—whether they're young and just coming out of college, mid-career, or later career—have different needs, but the importance of providing artists with the opportunities to really fulfill their potential at whatever stage of career they're at is vital.

The other thing about the Banff Centre is that we offer residential training programs across every art form as well as hybrid art forms, and interdisciplinary art forms. That's again a key component of what we do because it allows fantastic conversations and collaborations between artists not only at all stages of their career, but also working in different art forms. We have programs running concurrently, so there are many opportunities for the artists in those programs to meet and experience and share with people from other disciplines.

The training programs have mentors who are extraordinary artists and teachers who come from all over the world, and the participants themselves come from all over the world, so we have this international layering. In this way, Banff Centre offers a space for cross-cultural, cross discipline dialogue and it does so in an environment of extraordinary beauty and power which impacts the experience of anyone who spends time here. Artists who come through our programs often come back as mentors or faculty themselves, or they will return and join other artists who come to do production residencies, creation residencies, and invited residencies where artists come to start, continue, or finish the work that they are in the midst of creating.