Shoshana Polanco is a curator, connector, mentor and creative producer with international exposure and work experience in Buenos Aires, New York, Mexico City and Saudi Arabia. She has worked for major festivals such as the Cervantino in Mexico, FIBA in Buenos Aires, and TeatroStageFest and Lincoln Center Festival in NYC. As a consultant, she collaborated with Southern Exposure (Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation), Made in Scotland (Creative Scotland), Music Theatre Now (ITI Germany), Rolex Mentor and Protege Program (Rolex Foundation), CAPACOA (The Canadian Association for the Performing Arts), and The Fringe Society (Edinburgh) among others. In NYC she worked at BAM, PS122, Under the Radar, and The Builders Association. In Mexico, she worked for La Teatrería developing new productions and long-term strategies for the company, she was part of the curatorial committee of festival ESCENICA in Mexico 2019 and she is currently a member of the curatorial committee for the Festival Internacional Cervantino. She just started a new position as the head of culture and science outreach in FES Iztacala UNAM. She was a mentor to young artists and producers in Buenos Aires at Incubadora / DGEART and just launched a mentorship space, TEATRA, for Spanish speaking women producers in the Americas. In Saudi Arabia, she worked for 10 months in AlUla developing new cultural programs. Ms Polanco is vice chair of ISPA and fellow grad. She holds a Magna Cum Laude BA from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program in Women in Performance.

Josephine is Executive Director, Arts, for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a position she has held since May 2024. The Banff Centre is a global organization based in the Canadian Rocky Mountains that provides learning, leadership and creative development opportunities in arts and culture across all disciplines. Prior to this, from 2020, she was Vice President, Programming for TO Live in Toronto.

Josephine has spent her professional lifetime working in the arts in a career that encompasses theatre, opera, ballet, music and the visual arts. Her work has taken her from Melbourne to Sydney and now to Canada where she moved in 2016 to be Artistic Director of Luminato Festival. Her programs were conceived with the purpose of deeply connecting the festival with Toronto’s local artists as well as curating a balanced program of work from around the world. Before leaving Australia, she was Artistic Director of Melbourne’s international arts festival, now known as Rising, one of Australia’s most respected international arts festivals.

Her earlier career was focussed on executive roles including 10 years as Executive Director for Sydney Festival, and leadership roles with The Australian Ballet, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Malthouse Theatre.

This experience has given her a strong understanding of and love across all the arts and an appreciation of the interconnectedness that exists throughout artistic practice. Her belief in the vital role that the arts play in achieving an open, tolerant, thoughtful and forward-looking society governs her curatorial vision and work at all times.