Portland Institute for Contemporary Art this morning announced Cathy Edwards as its new Guest Artistic Director for the 2009 and 2010 Time Based Art (TBA) Festivals, following founding director Kristy Edmunds and NYC-based guest artistic director Mark Russell to become PICA’s third artistic director in its 13-year history.

Edwards comes to PICA from posts as Artistic Director of NYC’s Dance Theater Workshop, where the New York Times lauded her “daring curatorial choices [that] showed her to be as creative and imaginative as many of the artists she booked.” From there she assumed the post of Director of Programming for New Haven, Connecticut’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas, a post she will continue to hold during her two-year PICA contract.

After a lengthy national search for their next artistic leadership, PICA invited three finalists to Portland for interviews and site visits in May and June of this year. According to PICA’s statement this morning, PICA was “impressed with the insightful and ever-curious mind of Ms. Edwards,” who begins her work with the institution after 2008’s TBA Festival closes in October.
 
Edwards will work closely with PICA executive director Victoria Frey, and the organization’s top two associate curators, Performing Arts Program Director Erin Boberg Doughton and Visual Art Program Director Kristan Kennedy, during her TBA tenure.