Our Team

Justine shih pearson

Justine has an interdisciplinary practice as a designer, creative producer, facilitator, writer, arts researcher and advocate. Trained originally at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, over 20 years she has collaborated on projects for live performance, digital media, film/tv, online publishing, public spaces, hospitals, and museums in Australia, Europe, the UK, North America, and SE Asia.

Based in Sydney/Warrang since 2007, Justine combines an ongoing creative practice with scholarship and advocacy in the areas of artist and art form development. With a reputation for championing the work of the independent artist, she has been Executive Director/CEO of PACT Centre for Emerging Artists since 2021; is on the board of artist-run space ReadyMade Works, which she chaired from 2017-2022; and was previously director of choreographic research centre Critical Path, producer of screendance festival ReelDance, and a programming fellow with Dance Theatre Workshop/NY Live Arts. She holds a MA (NYU) and PhD (USyd) in performance studies and writes and consults on intercultural and interdisciplinary practices, and placemaking. Mixed-race and multinational, growing up between the unceded lands of the Ohlone, Lenape, Kaurna, and Gadigal as part of the Chinese diaspora, Justine is a child of the Asia Pacific, and this geo-cultural context pervades her approach.

CEO and Executive Director