2023 Halifax Art Festival Judges
Matt Kushan
MFA in Photography, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston; B.F.A. in Photography, School of Visual Arts, New York City
Matt Kushan is a photographer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator with over ten years of experience working in art and education in the United States and South Asia. Matt has exhibited work in the USA, UK, and South Asia, and he is a recent recipient of the IFTCF Emerging Artists Competition, in Milan, Italy. Matt has collaborated on projects such as “100 Years of Alan Turing”, a coding collaboration at The University of Salford in Manchester, UK, “Rooted/Paivasta”, a public art project in the Bagh-e-Jinnah Lahore, Pakistan, and Reading Between the Lines, a site-specific multimedia exhibit at the Gallow Gate, Glasgow, UK.
In his most recent body of work titled Songs of the East, Matt draws from his personal experience growing up in a blue-collar family in Cleveland, Ohio bridging his later life living as a foreigner in Lahore, Pakistan. He uses the camera to question the stories we tell and the distortions that emerge from them in the context of the age of disinformation.
Currently, he is collaborating with his partner Unum Babar on BorderLine, an independent creative practice, and digital consultancy, focusing on the production of images, films, and objects inspired by popular culture and the everyday.
Ileanne Buigas
Ileanne Buigas has been the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Lake County Museum of Art (LCMA) since January 2023 after serving as Interim Executive Director since LCMA’s move to Tavares in 2019. Her relationships with business and community members, plus her creative ideas have brought exhibitions with local, national, and international artists, created fundraising events that have funded LCMA’s programs, and expanded LCMA’s Kid’s Art program.
Ms. Buigas volunteered with LCMA in 2018 at its previous Eustis location (formerly Lake Eustis Museum of Art). She was invited to join the Board of Directors that same year and took on the Marketing and Rebranding for the museum’s relocation. During her first several months on the Board, she expanded LCMA’s social media reach, arranged several interviews with local publications, and was instrumental in launching its grand opening in Tavares in 2019.
Ms. Buigas, a native Floridian, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Miami, where her award-winning work was exhibited at the famed Lowe Art Museum, along with an extensive Marketing and non-profit background.
