IF is an around-the-clock celebration of improvised arts.

Founded by Dr. Ajay Heble (Founder and former Artistic Director, Guelph Jazz Festival) and presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, IF (Improvisation Festival) is a 24-hour celebration of creative art-making showcasing new, improvised works. Created in response to the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, this annual Festival is dedicated to showcasing an incredible array of new, original performances by improvising artists of all disciplines, for audiences residing around our home in Guelph, Ontario, as well as digital attendees from all around the world.

Since the Festival’s inception in 2020, IF has featured 400+ artists of all artistic disciplines hailing from over 25 countries. Through digital video livestreams and simultaneous international radio broadcasts, IF has reached thousands of attendees from 55+ countries.

IF 2023

Our fourth annual 24-hour improvisation festival returned on October 20–21, 2023! IF 2023 featured robust, in-person programming inside Guelph’s new state-of-the-art performance space, ImprovLab, and in other venues across the University of Guelph campus—and folks around the globe tuned in online for a stream of digital events.

Centred on the theme Restless Imagination: Improvising the New Normal, IF 2023 showcased legendary and emerging improvisational performers mixing skill, vulnerability, and daring to make meaning out of this moment.

View the full IF 2023 Programme here!

IF 2023 Team

Ajay Heble – Artistic Director
Julia Busatto – Operations Manager
Emma Bortolon-Vettor – Technical Coordinator
Lisa Conway – Technical Director
Ed Sinclair – Technical Coordinator
Steve Johnson – Technical Assistant
Sam Boer – Community Engagement Coordinator
Jordan Zalis – Promotions and Marketing Coordinator
Lucy Bilson – Graphics & Media Support
Chris Worden – Logistics Coordinator
Katayoun Asadi Jamnani – Administrative Assistant
Carey West – Volunteer Coordinator


History

Every year, IF takes on new significance.

The festival originated as an instinctive response to the emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The goal was clear: to immediately commission new, improvised performances, and showcase these innovative pieces for a global audience via online streaming. Within just three months, this idea became a reality. The response was overwhelming: dozens of partners and sponsors from across the globe came together to sponsor over 150 artists working across nearly every artistic discipline, including music, dance, poetry, film, theatre, comedy, multi-media, and everything in between.

The works presented at IF 2020 became an early, ephemeral archive of the first few months of the pandemic. Over 24 hours, international audiences came together to bond over these performances. Praised as “a huge, cathartic rite” (Musica Jazz), IF 2020 saw improvisers use this moment of singular societal change to chase emerging ideas and feelings with profound honesty and vulnerability. These stuck-at-home improvisers substituted with abandon, using the limited resources in their homes and local environs to make magic.

Following the success of our initial festival, IF 2021 went even bigger: more international co-presenters, more radio broadcasters, and more performances! There was so much exciting new work to present that this edition of the festival ended up including over a full day of performances—stretching to 25.5 hours, to be exact!

Set against the backdrop of a tentative emergence from the pandemic, IF 2022 took on the theme Towards New Futures: Improvising in Transition. This festival expanded beyond its all-night digital performances to include—as its grand finale—an in-person (and livestreamed) performance at the University of Guelph by the enthralling Toronto-based taiko group Nagata Shachu. This was also the first iteration of IF that was connected to an academic conference. IF 2022 dovetailed with Curating for Change: The Work that Music Festivals Do in the World (presented by IICSI, Queen’s University, and the University of Guelph), which brought together scholars, artists, organizers, and patrons to reflect on the role that music festivals play in our communities; this conference’s keynote address and performance by William Parker and Patricia Nicholson launched IF 2022.

Now in its fourth year, IF 2023 featured robust, in-person programming at IICSI’s new state-of-the-art performance space, ImprovLab, and in other spaces across the University of Guelph campus—all while continuing to offer the Festival’s distinctive online stream. The Festival also coincided with two other stellar events: an exhibition celebrating 15 years of research in the field of Critical Studies in Improvisation, titled Improvising Communities: A Retrospective Exhibition, and the 2023 Sound, Meaning, Education conference: CONVERSATIONS & improvisations.

Centred on the theme Restless Imagination: Improvising the New Normal, IF 2023 showcased legendary and emerging improvisational performers mixing skill, vulnerability, and daring to make meaning out of this moment.

Explore IF!

  • Check out the previous Festival line-ups in our archives: IF 2020 / IF 2021 / IF 2022
  • Be the first to hear about all things IF by following the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and by signing up for our newsletter!
  • You can also learn more about the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation on our website
  • Get the scoop on our amazing partners from around the world
  • Get in touch with our team—we’d love to hear from you!

Take a look at some of the highlights from previous editions of our Festival:

“The IF Festival…was a huge, cathartic rite.”

Musica Jazz

IF 2022 Team

Ajay Heble – Artistic Director
Ed Sinclair – Technical Director
Colin Harrington – Technical Coordinator (Live Events)
Sheetal Lodhia – Operations Manager
Richelle Forsey – Design & Web Coordinator
Sam Boer – Social Media & Media Relations
Marie Zimmerman – Community Engagement
Katayoun Asadi Jamnani – Administrative Assistant
Lucy Bilson – Graphics & Media Support
Shaghayegh Yassemi – Graphics & Media Support

Welcome Remarks – IF 2022

Thank you for joining us for IF 2022, we hope you enjoyed the festival!

IF 2021

IF 2021 was a free, 24-hour online festival of improvised arts, featuring over 150 international performers of all disciplines—music, dance, theatre, poetry, visual arts, and more. Presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) in partnership with festivals and community organizations around the world, this all-night celebration of the arts was free to stream online on August 14th at midnight (UTC+1).

This unique festival provided a chance for people around the world to reconnect with the arts from their homes. It was a celebration of this vast, diverse group of innovative artists doing what they do best: sharing inspiring performances that will make you smile, reflect, and re-connect with your surroundings & community.

IF 2021 Team

Ajay Heble – Artistic Director
Ed Sinclair – Technical Director
Rachel Collins – Operations Manager
Richelle Forsey – Design & Web Coordinator
Sam Boer – Social Media & Media Relations
Marie Zimmerman – Community Engagement
Ariel Oleynikov – Administrative Assistant

We’re All About Respectful Participation!

IF 2021’s 24-hour online Festival is meant as a site of digital gathering in which everyone attending is welcome to listen deeply, imagine freely, and invite sparks of inspiration and joy. It is intended to reconnect audience members with themselves, their immediate community, and an international web of open-minded art lovers. Creating such a space is only possible when we ensure respectful participation and a safe, inclusive digital environment.

IF 2021 attendees are welcome to share thoughts, ideas, and feelings through our live chat during the Festival, as well as through their social media accounts before, during, and after the event. We invite these channels of communication as a means to lift one another up, and will not tolerate their use to bully, harass, or otherwise make Festival artists or other Festival attendees feel unwelcome. The Festival’s social media accounts are moderated regularly, and the live chat for IF 2021 will be monitored closely for the duration of the Festival.

Welcome Remarks – IF 2021

David Lametti

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada


Lloyd Longfield

MP, Guelph


Mike Schreiner

MPP, Guelph


Cam Guthrie

Mayor, Guelph


Malcolm Campbell

Vice-President (Research), University of Guelph


Samantha Brennan

Dean, College of Arts, University of Guelph