Justine Richardson

Justine Richardson is the Director of the Arboretum at the University of Guelph where improvisation with people and nature interplays with planning every day. She was the project manager for the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation from 2015-2020. She has experience in project and partnership development with both university research environments and community-based arts and cultural organizations. Prior to IICSI, she worked at the 2030+ Research Group at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. For many years she worked developing and managing multi-partner humanities research projects at MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University. Her work at Matrix included the Quilt Index, the American Black Journal Online archive, and the Quilt Alliance’s Quilt Treasures video documentaries. She began her work-life at the community-based media-arts centre Appalshop, in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, where she directed Girls’ Hoops, a documentary history of girls’ high school basketball. Justine holds a M.A. from Michigan State University in American Studies with a certificate in Humanities Computing and a B.A. from Yale University in History of Art. As an undergraduate she was part of Yale Children’s Theater and the improvisational group, Playscape, so she is especially enthusiastic about bringing her management experience to engage with the IICSI community. The Arboretum is a community partner on the IF project and Justine serves on the Advisory Committee.