Staff and Leadership

PICA’s Artistic Director Angela Mattox joined the PICA team in 2012. She is responsible for conceiving and guiding the artistic vision for the organization and curating a range of interdisciplinary programs and activities for the TBA Festival, in addition to year-round artistic and educational events. Her global curatorial approach focuses on experimental practice, cross-cultural exchange, and interdisciplinary work that creates meaningful intersections between art, audiences, and ideas.

Mattox was the former Performing Arts Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), San Francisco’s leading multidisciplinary contemporary art center. In her eight year tenure, she was instrumental in revitalizing the performing arts presenting program, through which she supported visionary international artists while also commissioning new work by Bay Area locals. Before her tenure at YBCA, she served as Program Coordinator at Arts International, a New York-based organization dedicated to global cultural exchange in the arts. In this capacity, she coordinated national grant programs including the Artists Exploration Fund, the California Presenters Initiative, and The Fund for US Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions.

Mattox advocates locally and globally for contemporary artists through various networks and panels. She served as a Hub Site for the National Dance Project for a four year appointment and has participated in the Japan Foundation’s Performing Arts Japan Committee. Mattox is a member of several networks, including the Contemporary Arts Centers Network, the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium, and the Headlands Center for the Arts Program Advisory Council, and has served on panels for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Creative Capital, Multi-Arts Production Fund, Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Western Arts Alliance. She received her BA degree through the World Arts and Cultures program of UCLA.

Kennedy is an artist, curator, and educator. For the last decade, Kennedy has focused on commissioning new work by international emerging artists in the form of large-scale, site-specific installations and solo projects that exist at the borders of genres. Kennedy takes an expansive view of visual art; in addition to presenting the plastic arts, she organizes music, performance art, publications, and new media projects as part of PICA’s year-round programming and for the organization’s annual Time-Based Art Festival. Beyond her curatorial projects, Kennedy oversees the Precipice Fund, a grant for artist-run organizations and collaborative projects in Portland, Oregon, as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program. With the move to our new facility in 2012, Kennedy initiated PICA’s Resource Room Residency program through the organization’s library and archive.

Outside of PICA, Kennedy currently teaches Contemporary Art History at Portland State University, where she also organizes their MFA Visiting Artist Program and Lecture Series. She sits on the advisory board for the Headlands Center for the Arts and is the former Board President of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Kennedy represents PICA as a member of several emerging consortiums including the Visual Art Network, a pilot project of the National Performance Network. She has served as a juror, panelist, and advisor to several foundations and granting organizations, including Creative Capital, The Regional Arts and Culture Council, and Southern Exposure’s Alternate Exposure Grants among others. She is represented by Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, Oregon.

Erin Boberg has worked alongside Executive/Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds on PICA’s Performance and Residency Programs since it’s inception in 1995. In 1999 she was invited to participate in the National Association of Artist’s Organizations Co-Generate program, which identifies and fosters new leaders in the arts. She is one of 6 U.S. delegates to the International Leadership Development Forum, a multi-national platform for professional and artistic exchange in dance. Boberg has also served on several artist selection panels and awards juries for the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Creative Capital, and other local, regional and national organizations in the performing and visual arts.

Prior to joining PICA, Boberg was an intern for Kristy Edmunds at the Art on the Edge program and served as the Education Outreach Coordinator for the Northwest Film Center’s Video/Filmmaker-in-Schools program, where she directed the Young People’s Film and Video Festival. Boberg is an independent performance artist and has studied dance, music and theatre at Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honors in Theatre from Lewis & Clark College in 1994.

PICA’s Executive Director Victoria Frey manages PICA’s vision and direction and is responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations and fiscal management. Prior to her tenure at PICA, Frey was the owner and director of Quartersaw Gallery. As one of the first galleries in Portland’s Pearl District and among the most influential galleries in the Pacific Northwest, Quartersaw was responsible for launching and furthering the careers of many Northwest artists. A pioneer on the Portland arts scene, Frey has been a long-standing arts advocate in our community. Frey has served numerous boards and commissions that focus on the arts landscape locally, regionally, and nationally. She currently sits on the board for Travel Portland, is Vice Chair for the Creative Advocacy Network and serves on the Advisory Boards for Caldera and the White Box at the University of Oregon in Portland.

Previous board and advisory posts include the NW Business Committee for Culture and the Arts (Board of Directors), the Oregon Arts Commission (Commissioner), The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Advisory Panel) and the Mayor’s Creative Capacity Initiative. Frey was the founding secretary/treasurer of PICA’s Board of Trustees, served on the Executive Committee, and Co-Chaired the Campaign for PICA as the Development Chair. In addition, she has been involved in strategic planning and fiscal oversight of the organization from the time of PICA’s inception.