Fogo Island Dialogues

Fogo Island Arts (FIA) is a contemporary arts and ideas organization on Fogo Island, located in Newfoundland & Labrador. Though Fogo Island is a settler community, it’s important to know that its territory is part of the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk and the island of Newfoundland is the ancestral homeland of the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk. We also take this opportunity to recognize the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut and the Innu of Nitassinan, and their ancestors, as the original people of Labrador.

Founded in 2008 as an artists residency program, Fogo Island Arts was created with the conviction that art and artists have the capacity to instigate social change and offer new perspectives on issues of contemporary concern. By facilitating collaborations and connections between a local and international network of practitioners and thinkers, Fogo Island Arts aims to provide relevant insights on questions of human relationships with place, nature, financial capital, and one another.

Fogo Island Arts’ residency program has grown into a full program of exhibitions, public programs, publications and focused research programs including the Fogo Island Dialogues and Summer Workshops, all of which aim to bridge connections between local and wider global communities.

Fogo Island Arts is a charitable program of Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity with the mission to build economic and cultural resilience on Fogo Island, making it possible for local communities to thrive in the global economy.

Fogo Island

Fogo Island is an outport community: a small, remote coastal settlement unique to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Fogo Islanders are people of the sea who have made their living by fishing the frigid and often unforgiving waters of the North Atlantic.

A non-capital-accumulating society until the latter decades of the 20th century, Fogo Islanders sustained themselves for generations by fishing as families and relying on an unrelenting sense of resourcefulness fed by a profound love of place. This history of relative isolation and self-sufficiency has shaped Fogo Islanders and the Fogo Island of today, and continues to inform the island’s economy and culture.

While Fogo Island is a settler community, its territory is part of the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, and the island of Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk) is the ancestral homeland of the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk. FIA also recognizes the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut and the Innu of Nitassinan, and their ancestors, as the original people of Labrador.

Shorefast

Advisory Board

About

Advisory Board

Zita Cobb

Growing up on Fogo Island, Zita developed a deep belief in the inherent value of place and profound respect for the human ways of knowing that emerge from respectful relationships with nature, culture, and community. She held senior financial roles in the high-tech industry, notably with JDS Fitel, subsequently JDS Uniphase, where she contributed to building the company into one of the most successful high-tech innovators in history. Zita returned home to Fogo Island in the early 2000’s and, along with her brothers Anthony and Alan, founded Shorefast. In 2016, Zita was awarded the Order of Canada. She volunteers her time and energies to the active direction and management of Shorefast and its projects on Fogo Island.

Eleanor Dawson

Eleanor Dawson is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has been involved in the cultural community of Newfoundland and Labrador for the past 30 years in a variety of production, administrative and managerial roles. In 2001 Dawson joined the Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. In 2006, she assumed the position of Director of Arts. In that capacity she participated in the creation of the provincial cultural policy as well as creating and administering various support programs for the cultural sector. Additionally, Dawson has played a key research, development and administrative role in various sector-expanding projects. She retired from the provincial government in 2015 and continues to be active in the cultural community. She is past president of both the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society and the Newfoundland Historical Society. Dawson is an active participant in Newfoundland music, dance and storytelling. She is a traditional singer who currently co-hosts a monthly song circle in St. John’s.

Paul Dean

Paul Dean is the retired CEO of the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland. As a geologist he worked for many years with the Department of Mines and Energy as Assistant Deputy Minister, and was the Deputy Minister of the Department of Environment with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Paul is a noted traditional singer and storyteller who has been writing short stories for The March Hare for ten years or so. Many of his stories are based in North Harbour, Placentia Bay where he grew up and where his heart still remains. A collection of Paul’s stories , “Come On With The Punt”, was published by Pedlar Press in 2016.

Fabrizio Gallanti

Fabrizio Gallanti is the director of arc en rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux, France, appointed in 2021. Gallanti was the first Senior Mellon Fellow (2014-15) within the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities at Princeton University’s School of Architecture. From 2011 to 2014 he was associate director of programs at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. Gallanti is a founding member of the architectural research studio Fig-Projects (2003-Present). Gallanti holds a PhD in architectural design from the Polytechnic University of Turin (2001) and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Genova (1995). He has taught architectural design and architectural theory in Chile (Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad Diego Portales, 2002-2008) and Italy (Polytechnic University of Milan, 2007 2010). He is currently visiting professor at the Architectural Association, London. Gallanti has written for international magazines such as A+U, Domus, San Rocco, Clog, Harvard Design Magazine, Architectural Review and The Journal of Architectural Education and curated numerous exhibitions internationally.

Katy Graham Debost

Ms. Katy Graham Debost is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal. She lived in Paris for over 25 years, and spent the last 10 working to promote the goals of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. This includes being elected president of Les Amis du NMWA from 2015-2019, where, under her stewardship, the committee organised events around women artists working in France, including visits to museum shows, gallery exhibitions, and artists’ studios. As part of NMWA’s biennial Women to Watch (WTW) program, the committee worked with local curators to select emerging French women artists to show their work in Washington. More recently, after participating in the selection of a Canadian artist to participate for the first time in the WTW 2021 exhibition, she is actively engaged in choosing another artist for the next iteration of WTW in 2024. Ms Graham Debost is a member of NMWA’s Advisory Board in Washington. She is also long-standing member of the Cercle 2021, an acquisitions committee of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD) in Paris, focused on purchasing 20th & 21st century design pieces. In addition, she participates in a scholarship committee for the Ecole Camondo, MAD’s interior design school. Ms Graham Debost recently joined the Board of Directors of the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation in Toronto, and is now based between her native Toronto, Paris and Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, which shares many similarities with Fogo Island.

Elisa Nuyten

Elisa Nuyten is the founder of The Vega Foundation.
The foundation is dedicated to supporting and promoting artists through the production and acquisition of new moving image works and to facilitate their presentation through institutional collaborations. Elisa is a trustee at the New Museum in NYC as well as the Renaissance Society in Chicago. Born and raised in Belgium, she resides in Toronto and Paris now.

Silke Otto-Knapp (1970-2022)

Silke Otto-Knapp was born in Osnabrueck in 1970. She completed a degree in cultural studies at the University of Hildesheim, Germany and received her MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design. Until 2013, Otto-Knapp lived and worked in London. In 2014 she relocated to Los Angeles where she is Assistant Professor for Painting and Drawing at UCLA. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include In the waiting room at the Renaissance Society, Chicago; Land lies in water at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto; Monday or Tuesday at Camden Arts Centre, London; Questions of Travel at Kunsthalle Wien, and Geography and Plays at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Her work has been shown at Tate Britain, London, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Berkeley Art Museum, Migros Museum, Zürich, and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. She is represented by Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne and Berlin, and greengrassi in London.

Willem de Rooij

Willem de Rooij (*1969, Beverwijk, NL) investigates the production, contextualization and interpretation of images through a variety of media. Appropriations and collaborations are fundamental to De Rooij’s artistic method and his projects have stimulated new research in art history and ethnography. In 2000 De Rooij won the Bâloise Art Prize, and he was nominated for the Hugo Boss Award in 2004 and the Vincent Award in 2014. He was a Robert Fulton Fellow at Harvard University in 2004 and a DAAD fellow in Berlin in 2006. He represented the Netherlands at the 2005 Venice Biennale with Jeroen de Rijke, his collaborative partner from 1994-2006.

Institutional solo exhibitions include Portikus, Frankfurt (2021); De Appel, Amsterdam (2020), Kunstwerke Berlin (2017); IMA Brisbane (2017); MMK Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt/Main (2016); Consortium, Dijon (2015); The Jewish Museum, New York (2014). Recent group exhibitions include the John Hansard Gallery, Nottingham (2020); BDL Museum, Mumbai (2019); the Hammer Museum Los Angeles (2018); Jakarta Biennale (2017); Limerick Biennial (2016); Aishti Foundation, Beirut (2015); 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014) and Raw Material Company, Dakar (2013).

De Rooij has taught and lectured extensively since 1998. He is Professor of Fine Art at the Städelschule, Frankfurt/Main (since 2006), and advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (since 2015). In 2016, he co-founded BPA// Berlin program for artists, and became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. De Rooij’s works can be found in the collections of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MUMOK, Vienna; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MOCA, Los Angeles and MOMA, New York.

Nicolaus Schafhausen

Nicolaus Schafhausen is a curator, director, teacher, author, and editor of numerous publications on contemporary art. Since 2011 he has been the Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast.

Schafhausen was the Artistic Director of Tell me about yesterday tomorrow (2020) an exhibition at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism about the future of the past and an accompanying publication (2021). He has curated numerous international exhibitions such as Media City Seoul 2010 and the Dutch Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. He was the curator of the German Pavilion for the 52nd (2007) and 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and curator of the Kosovo Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Schafhausen also co-curated the 6th Moscow Biennale in 2015.

In addition to curating exhibitions, biennales and other projects, Schafhausen has led institutions such as the Witte de With Center Contemporary Art in Rotterdam and Frankfurter Kunstverein, He was Founding Director of the European Kunsthalle, conceived as a project to examine the conditions and structures of contemporary art institutions independent of local government mandates. In 2019 he stepped down as Director of the Kunsthalle Wien, a position he held since 2012, for political reasons, observing that the future of such cultural institutions was thrown into question by rising nationalist policies in Austria and elsewhere. He has called for stronger support from independent state institutions and cultural administrations in times of right-wing populist movements.

Kitty Scott

Kitty Scott is a curator, writer and senior arts administrator. Former Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, she has also served as the Carol and Morton Rapp Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Director of Visual Arts at The Banff Centre, Chief Curator at Serpentine Galleries, and curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada. She has curated exhibitions of artists such as Francis Alÿs, Janet Cardiff, Paul Chan, Peter Doig, Geoffrey Farmer, Theaster Gates, Brian Jungen, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ken Lum, Gordon Matta-Clark, Scott McFarland, Silke Otto-Knapp, Ron Terada, and Jin-me Yoon. She co-curated the Liverpool Biennial (with Sally Tallant) (2018), presented Geoffrey Farmer’s project at the Canada Pavilion for the Venice Biennale (2017) and was an agent for dOCUMENTA (13) (2012), Kassel, Germany. Scott organized the curatorial symposium “Are Curators Unprofessional?” (2010) at The Banff Centre and edited the publication Raising Frankenstein: Curatorial Education and Its Discontents (Koenig Books, Cologne, 2010). She has written extensively on contemporary art for catalogues and journals including Parachute, Parkett, and Canadian Art. Scott has contributed to numerous books on curatorial studies and written texts for monographic publications on the work of Matthew Barney, Peter Doig, Brian Jungen, Adam Pendleton, and Daniel Richter; and for the publication Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture (Phaidon, London, New York, 2010). As an independent curator, she has worked on numerous exhibitions including Gordon Matta-Clark: Line of Flight (2020), Bankside Browser (2000) for Tate Modern, London, and Universal Pictures (1999) at the Melbourne International Biennial. Scott was the Canadian coordinator for the Seventh International Istanbul Biennial (2001) and also worked on the inaugural SITE Santa Fe Biennial (1995). Scott has taught at numerous institutions including the Curatorial Practice Program at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

Monika Szewczyk

Monika Szewczyk is a writer, curator, editor, and educator based in Amsterdam. Her lifelong interest in art- and/as history-making has evolved in close collaboration with artists, poets, activists, and archivists whose methods vary, but who all tend to reimagine structures and reinvent traditions as they negotiate belonging to more than one place, people and culture. A native of Szczecin, Poland, Szewczyk moved at a formative age to the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations also known as Vancouver, Canada. After studying International Relations (BA) and Art History (MA) as well as theatre, film, and fine arts, she went on to lecture, advise and lead seminars at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, Bergen Academy of Art and Design and the University of Chicago. Currently she is the QuiS22 Research Fellow at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Most recently (2019-2022), she served as director of de Appel in Amsterdam and evolved the curriculum of this foundation’s unique Curatorial Programme. Previously she was one of the curators for documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel (2015-2017); Visual Arts Program Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2012-2014); and Head of Publications at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam (2008-2011), now Kunstinstituut Melly; Assistant Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2004-2007); and Program Coordinator of the Belkin Satellite (2001-2003), a downtown outpost of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, her alma mater. Her writings and interviews as well as her editorial work can be found in numerous artists’ publications, readers, catalogues and in journals such as e-flux journal, Afterall, Mousse, OCULA and South as a State of Mind.

Stephan Weishaupt

For Stephan Weishaupt, art and design are about relationships. Weishaupt’s intuition, worldview, and above all, an affinity for connecting people is what help him bring the best of the world of design together into truly original experiences.  Born and raised in Munich, Stephan Weishaupt’s relationship with his family — a long line of entrepreneurs, architects, and carpenters — informed his insatiable curiosity and appreciation of art and design. A graduate of the University of Applied Sciences, Weishaupt’s early career in marketing and communications led to the formation of a portfolio of design-centric businesses, Weishaupt Design Group, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Driven by a desire to connect, curate, and cultivate meaningful relationships between makers and design lovers, the Group works to honour the authenticity of the products and materials with which they are crafted, as well as the stories of those who create them.

Staff

About

Staff

Nicolaus Schafhausen

Strategic Director, Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast Foundation

Nicolaus Schafhausen is a curator, director, teacher, author, and editor of numerous publications on contemporary art. Since 2011 he has been the Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast. Schafhausen was the Artistic Director of Tell me about yesterday tomorrow (2020) an exhibition at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism about the future of the past and an accompanying publication (2021). He was the curator of the German Pavilion for the 52nd (2007) and 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and curator of the Kosovo Pavilion on the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Schafhausen also co-curated the 6th Moscow Biennale in 2015. Additionally, Schafhausen has led institutions such as the Witte de With Center Contemporary Art in Rotterdam and Frankfurter Kunstverein. He was Founding Director of the European Kunsthalle, conceived as a project to examine the conditions and structures of contemporary art institutions, independent of local government mandates. In 2019, he stepped down as Director of Kunsthalle Wien, a position he held since 2012 for political reasons. Schafhausen observed that the future of such cultural institutions was thrown into question by rising nationalist policies in Austria and elsewhere. He has called for stronger support from independent state institutions and cultural administrations in times of right-wing populist movements.

nicolausschafhausen.com

Iris Stünzi

Program Manager

Claire Shea

Director

Claire Shea has recently joined Fogo Island Arts as Director. From 2017 to 2021, Shea was the Deputy Director at Para Site, Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. In 2014, she was an Associate Curator for the 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, ‘We have never participated’ at OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen. Shea was previously Curatorial Director at Cass Sculpture Foundation in Goodwood, England, (2008-2016), a member of Bold Tendencies’ selection and steering committee in London, England (2010-2015), she curated the inaugural Thun Ceramic Residency in Bolzano, Italy (2015) and worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy (2006-2008).

Press

Amy Fung

Danai Anesiadou

Brenda Draney

Kate Newby

Thomas & Helke Bayrle

In this age of instability, inequality, and environmental crisis, artists’ contributions to culture, society and knowledge production are more urgent than ever. By offering new perspectives and ideas, artists can help us make sense of the world, refine our attention, and shift conventional thinking. Fogo Island Arts continues to focus on issues of global critical importance and is motivated by the conviction that art and artists make significant contributions to progressive society.

Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program provides opportunities for artists from a wide range of disciplines to live and work on Fogo Island for periods ranging from two to four months. Artists-in-residence are provided with accommodation and studio space, as well as a weekly stipend to offset the costs of materials, shipping, and day-to-day living expenses. Most travel expenses are also covered. Artists-in-residence must give one public presentation, performance, workshop, or lead a similar event during their residency.

Most FIA artists-in-residence are selected through invitation and partnerships. A general call for applications for a limited number of residency spots is held every two years, while specific calls for applications made possible through partnerships are released regularly.

To receive notifications of calls for applications and other updates, please join our mailing list by signing up below.

Open Calls

Residencies

Open Calls

Next applications period: January – March 2024

FIA releases a Call for Applications once every two years.

Fogo Island Arts residencies provide opportunities for artists to live and work on Fogo Island, Newfoundland for six to eight weeks. Artists-in-residence are provided with accommodation and studio space, a vehicle for on-island use, and a weekly stipend to offset the costs of materials and day-to-day living expenses. Most travel expenses are also covered. Artists-in-residence must give one public presentation, performance, workshop, or similar event during their residency.

FIA residencies are intended for professional contemporary artists with specialized training, recognition among their peers, and a history of public presentation of their work in a professional context.

Please Note

Due to the high volume of response in previous Calls for Applications, FIA will be accepting a maximum of 1000 applications, from which six artists-in-residence will be selected. The Call for Applications may close before the deadline if the number of submitted applications reaches 1000. An application is considered submitted when the applicant’s portion has been completed on SlideRoom (see below); reference letters will be accepted until the posted deadline.

FIA is not able to provide feedback on individual applications.

Application Criteria

Applications are welcome from Canadian and international contemporary artists working in a wide range of disciplines including visual art, film, arts writing, music/sound, curating, design and theory.

Applications should consider the unique circumstances under which Fogo Island Arts carries out its programs. Applicants should also keep in mind that this residency takes place on a remote island with limited amenities.

Due to the limited size of FIA studios and houses, applications will only be accepted from collaborative groups with a maximum of two members. All residency costs (travel budget, stipend, etc.) will be shared between members.

Successful candidates should have a valid driver’s license and will be responsible for acquiring the necessary visa if coming from a foreign country.

The residencies will take place for six to eight weeks during the periods specified below.

Residency Periods

Successful candidates will work with FIA staff to determine a six to eight week residency within the following periods:

February-April, April-June, July-September, September-November

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted using the SlideRoom online portal. Step-by-step application instructions are available on the portal. There is a non-refundable administration fee which must be paid through SlideRoom. The fee is $20 USD for applications submitted by the early deadline and $30 USD for applications submitted between the early deadline and final deadline. The fee goes towards costs associated with administrating the Call for Applications, including use of the Slideroom platform, and honoraria for members of the jury. Applicants will receive a confirmation email once their application has been completed.

Applicants will be asked to complete:

Application form
Project proposal and a brief description of their practice (500 words maximum)
Short biography (150 words maximum)
Detailed curriculum vitae (4 pages maximum)
One reference letter from a professional in their field. The referee should outline why the applicant should participate in a residency with Fogo Island Arts. In the SlideRoom portal, applicants will be asked to provide the name and contact information of a referee. They will receive an email asking them to upload their letter of recommendation directly to SlideRoom
The name and contact information of one additional referee (no letter required)

And, where relevant provide 1-15 samples of work:

Maximum 10 images (up to 5MB each) in JPEG format, with relevant caption information included
Maximum 2 videos (up to 250MB each) or 2 links to video for film related submissions
3 samples of published writing (up to 10 pages total)

The next application deadline is 30 March 2024.

When applying, should you have any issues with the SlideRoom online portal, please contact Slideroom.

If you have questions regarding FIA’s international residency program, please see the FAQs.

Selection Process
Candidates will be selected by the FIA Residency Selection Committee currently comprised of Monika Szewczyk, Kitty Scott, Willem de Rooij and Fabrizio Gallanti. The selectors will identify artists working in a variety of disciplines, geographies, ages, and points in their careers.

The Rise and Fall of Tides

Labrador Current Foodways

Hnatyshyn Foundation Young Curator Residency 2022

FIA Internship Opportunity

A Note on the 2020 Open Call

2020

Fogo Island Arts Residency 2018-19

2018-2019

Residency Partnerships

Residencies

Residency Partnerships

Fogo Island Arts launches open calls for applications annually for residencies and projects in collaboration with partner institutions.

The Islands Arts Writing Residency

The Islands is a residency partnership between FIA and Art Metropole, Toronto, that aims to encourage arts writing and criticism in contemporary art. The Islands invites emerging and established arts writers and artists with a writing practice to think about the various roles of writing in the arts across two unique locations. Each successful candidate will have the opportunity to spend a month on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts’ residency program, followed by two weeks on Toronto Island at Artscape Gibraltar Point. The residency will culminate in a publication funded, published, and distributed by Art Metropole, in conjunction with Fogo Island Arts.

Hnatyshyn Foundation-Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency

Established in 2014, the Young Curator Residency offers an exceptional Canadian curator between the ages of 25 and 30 the opportunity to spend six weeks on Fogo Island as part of FIA’s international residency program. During the residency, the curator works closely with FIA artists-in-residence, staff, and members of the community, and contributes to FIA initiatives. Candidates are selected based on their body of work, curatorial philosophy, and proposed residency objectives.

Fogo Island Arts-Sobey Art Award Residency

Fogo Island Arts has partnered with the Sobey Art Foundation In support of contemporary Canadian artists. One of the 5 artists short-listed annually for the Sobey Art Award is awarded a residency on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program.

Initiated in 2018, FIA is the inaugural residency partner of the Sobey Art Award, with the mandate to expand opportunities and exposure for Canadian artists internationally.

The Sobey Art Foundation’s support is a significant contribution to Fogo Island Arts’ Patrons Program, a major fundraising campaign launched in 2016 to support FIA programs and initiatives. The partnership between Fogo Island Arts and the Sobey Art Foundation reflects a shared understanding of the critical role that contemporary art plays in enriching and revitalizing communities.

The Sobey Art Award is the pre-eminent prize for contemporary Canadian art. Jointly administered by the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF) and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), the Award celebrates the careers of emerging Canadian artists through prize money and recognition.

Ars Via Prize Partnership

A special partnership with the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. (Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries) offers recipients of the prestigious ars viva Prize for Visual Arts a residency with Fogo Island Arts.

The ars viva Prize is awarded annually to young artists living in Germany whose work is distinguished by a high level of artistic quality and a contemporary outlook. The prize includes two exhibitions at renowned art institutions in Europe, a financial award of 5,000 Euros each, the production of an artist’s edition, and a bilingual catalogue published by Sternberg Press, as well as a month-long residency with Fogo Island Arts.

Bothy Project Design Residency

In its inaugural year, Bothy Project, Fogo Island Arts and Fogo Island Workshops have partnered to produce Cross Currents, a residency and professional development project for craft-designer-makers based in Scotland and in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Cross Currents will explore the historical, artistic and social parallels between Scotland’s West Coast and Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada’s East Coast. These connections across the Atlantic include geology and landscape; fishing and seafaring, in their cultural and environmental guises; and connections of communities, Indigenous peoples, migrants, immigrants and settlers. Aspects of these parallels are present in Scotland and Newfoundland and Labrador, and offer a myriad of material for craft-designer-makers to explore, learn from and communicate through their practice.

The project has been generously funded through British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland’s Connect and Collaborate program, with additional support from Shorefast.

Pew Fellowship Consortium of Residencies

Fogo Island Arts is an international partner of the Pew Fellowship Consortium of Residencies, a project managed by the Alliance of Artists Communities and funded by Pew Fellowships in the Arts. As part of this biennial program, FIA has welcomed Pew Fellows Rea Tajiri (2019) and David Kessler (2021) for a six-week residency on Fogo Island.

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a multidisciplinary grant-maker and hub for knowledge sharing, dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. The Center invests in ambitious, imaginative, and catalytic work that showcases the region’s cultural vitality and enhances public life, and engages in an ongoing exchange of ideas concerning artistic and interpretive practice with a broad network of cultural practitioners and leaders. Established in 2005, the Center makes project grants in two areas, Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation, while twelve annual Fellowships provide unrestricted grants to individual artists working in all disciplines. The Pew Consortium of Artist Residencies extends the impact of Pew Fellowships by providing interested Fellows the opportunity to participate in a residency at one of the participating partner sites.

CIBC Artist-In-Residence

Fogo Island Arts (FIA) partnered with CIBC from 2016 to 2018 to establish the CIBC Artist-in-Residence Program. CIBC’s contribution of $150,000 over the three-year agreement enabled FIA to bring one established Canadian contemporary artist per year to participate in a residency on Fogo Island. Celebrated artists Paul P., Elizabeth McIntosh and Ashes Withyman were selected as the CIBC Artists-in-Residences.

Digital Programs

Artists-in-Residence

Studios

Wilfrid Almendra, Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap, 2016

Brenda Draney, Atlas, 2019. Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches. Photo courtesy the artist.

Ieva Epnere, On water, wind and faces of stone, 2018

Ieva Epnere

Abbas Akhavan, script for an island, 2019

Fogo Island Arts’ exhibition program includes major solo commissions and site-specific installations by selected participants of FIA’s international residency program. Exhibitions are presented at the Fogo Island Gallery, a 1200-square-foot space located in the Fogo Island Inn, as well as at offsite locations as part of FIA’s international outreach.

An artist monograph produced by FIA in collaboration with Sternberg Press (Berlin) accompanies most major exhibitions, helping to provide critical context for the understanding of each artist’s work.

In addition to major commissions, FIA invites emerging artists-in-residence to create a site-specific installation at the Fogo Island Gallery as the culmination of their residency. Emerging artist exhibitions are shorter in length and designed to foster space for experimentation and spontaneous intervention. They also provide mentorship opportunities through contact with FIA staff and Advisory Board members.

Gallery hours: 12 pm – 5 pm, Tuesday & Thursday
Admission is free

In response to the unprecedented social and economic impacts of the global pandemic on artists and arts professionals, this platform for discussion and engagement is an opportunity to support participants by offering fees, strengthening capacity to build networks, and increasing the exposure of work and ideas. Furthermore, by hosting programs online, FIA hopes to connect more geographically varied audiences and provide alternative modes for engaging with FIA’s programming. The Digital Program has three main facets:

The Lost & Found Agency features artists, professionals, and researchers from a variety of disciplines to hold a monthly public conversation and lecture series online. Events range from formal lectures to informal participatory conversations that encourage exchange in a peer-to-peer learning environment. The Lost & Found thematic engages key thinkers and makers addressing themes pertaining to decolonization, the climate crisis, alternate economies, reciprocity, new forms of democracy and democratic engagement, migration, and consensus building in the age of fake news, among other topics of the participants choosing.

The Digital Residency is a new virtual program that will offer opportunities, three months long in duration, for artists, writers, filmmakers, curators, organizers, and other cultural workers. Selected participants will be offered the freedom to program a central part of the website and feature content of their choosing with the support or collaboration of FIA staff. Participants are offered a stipend in order to assists and encourage new production, as well as opportunities for exchange, exposure, collaboration and mentorship with members of FIA’s community.

The FIA Network, is an ever growing web that traces the work of FIA team and alumni beyond Fogo Island’s shores. The network serves as a central and active archive to circulate information about exhibitions, awards, appointments, publications, and other work produced by the FIA community.

In addition to public programs, regular sessions will be held internally for Shorefast staff and Fogo Island community members. While focused on art and contemporary ideas, these programs will be tailored towards issues of local concern, emphasizing open exchange, education, and capacity building for staff members and guests who may be less familiar with art.

FIA Network

Digital Residencies

Lost & Found Agency

Digital Programs

Lost & Found Agency

Hosted monthly, The Lost & Found Agency is an online public conversation and lecture series featuring artists, professionals, and researchers from a variety of disciplines. Events will range from formal lectures to informal participatory conversations that encourage exchange in a peer-to-peer learning environment. The Lost & Found Agency thematic will engage key thinkers and makers addressing themes pertaining to decolonization, the climate crisis, alternate economies, reciprocity, new forms of democracy and democratic engagement, migration, and consensus building in the age of fake news, among other topics of the participants choosing.

2021-2022 Programme

The problem of sandboxes and timeframes: a talk with Paul Kolling

2023

WWII Weather Station “Kurt”: a talk by Susan Schuppli

2023

Domaine de Beaulieu – Afterlife: a talk by Sophie von Olfers

2022

The Great Decentering: Topographies of the Rural, a talk by Pablo Larios

2022

Ekaterina Degot in Conversation with Nicolaus Schafhausen

2022

One island through another, a talk by Eli Kerr

2022

Fogo Island in a Changing Ocean: Developing Foresight for the Future, a talk by Paul Foley

2022

Xiaoyu Weng & Zheng Bo In Conversation

2022

Points of Access, a talk by Meagan Musseau

2022

Nicolaus Schafhausen in dialogue with two of the GTA21 co-curators

2021

Schools of Thought, a talk by Minh Nguyen

2021

Fogo Island Arts presents regular programs on Fogo Island, including artist talks, film screenings, open studios, educational workshops and special projects. Selected programs are presented in cities across Canada and abroad, including the Fogo Island Dialogues interdisciplinary conversation series, as part of FIA’s international outreach.

Artist Talks

Fogo Island Film

Programs

Fogo Island Film

Fogo Island Arts programs include screenings of national and international films in diverse genres, presented in the Fogo Island Inn Cinema. Screenings include works by artists participating in FIA’s residency and exhibition programs and special guests, as well as annual thematic film series. Screenings are free and open to all.

Fogo Island has a longstanding history with film that emerged through the National Film Board of Canada’s (NFB) Challenge for Change program of the 1960s and 70s.

A participatory project that used film to promote social change, Challenge for Change led to the hugely influential Fogo Process films, which documented Fogo Islanders’ way of life and shared concerns, empowering communities to act together to determine their future.

FIA’s thematic film series draw inspiration from this legacy and the capacity of art to instigate social change.

Fogo Island Film Weekends

2019

Resistance and Resilience

2019

Short Film Competition

2019

Resistance and Resilience

2018

Ieva Epnere: On Water, Wind, and Faces of Stones

2018

Challenge for Change / Société Nouvelle: Documents in Participatory Democracy

2017

Mark Lewis: Film Premiere

2017

Identities

2016

Special Projects

Programs

Special Projects

Fogo Island Arts Week: October 4 – 9, 2022

2022

Children of Fogo Island Exhibition

2022

How’s The Weather x Richard Sides

2022

How’s The Weather?

2022

World Weather Network: Liam Gillick’s A Variability Quantifier

2022

FIA x Liam Gillick: Un Quantificateur de Variabilité

2022

Cross Current Maker’s Posters

2022

Olaf Nicolai, MARX

2021

Jahresring 65 International Book Launches

2019

Fogo Island Arts Weekend

2019

Open Restaurant on Fogo Island

2018

Rearviews – A Workshop with Danielle St. Amour

2016

Periférica

2016

Fogo Island Decentralized Academy

2015

Fogo Island Arts at the Venice Biennale

2015

Fogo Island Arts at TIAF 2014 | Booth # 1202

2014

Located

2014

On-Island Events

Programs

On-Island Events

Armand Yervant Tufenkian: Submerged Narratives film screenings

Cooking Sections: CLIMAVORE

Eva Giolo: Flowers blooming in our throats, A Tongue Called Mother and more

Michael Van den Abeele: Open Studio

Sharon Lockhart: Podwórka & EVENTIDE

Richard Sides: Looking At Rooms In A New Light

Teresa Baker: Open Studio

Open-Fire Cooking & Karaoke with Minh Nguyen

David Kessler & Sung Tieu: Film Screening

Rob Crosse: Open Studio

Rob Crosse: Team Roedale, Clear as a Bell, Prime Time, Old Growth & Mall Walking

Daniel Chew & Micaela Durand: First, Negative Two & 38

Nelson White: Artist Talk

Nicole Travers: Open Studio

Larry Weyand: Artist Talk

Emily Pittman: Formative

Abdul Sharif Baruwa: Open Studio

Keto Logua: Open Studio

Shezad Dawood: Open Studio

Nora N. Khan: WALKING SIMULATOR / SEMANTIC MAPPING

Rea Tajiri: Our Little Manshen

Fogo Island Arts’ monographic publication series accompanies major solo exhibitions and commissions presented at the Fogo Island Gallery. The volumes provide extended consideration of an artist’s work in formats including critical essays, interviews, experimental writing and fiction. Combined with installation views, process documentation and artist contributions, FIA publications serve as a record of the artist’s time on Fogo Island and their creative contributions that can be disseminated internationally.

The series is co-published with Sternberg Press (Berlin), with graphic design by Markus Weisbeck Studio.

Fogo Island Arts produces limited editions in collaboration with selected artists who have participated in a residency. Proceeds from the sales of FIA Editions support Fogo Island Arts and its parent organization Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity.

FIA is grateful to the artists who have generously donated their work in support of FIA initiatives.

About

Artists

Residencies

Exhibitions

Digital Programs

Programs

Publications

Support

FAQs

AiR Initiatives Armand Yervant Tufenkian: Submerged Narratives film screenings

AiR Initiatives Cooking Sections: CLIMAVORE

Exhibition The Big Church: Exploring possible futures for the former St. John the Evangelist Church

Monographs Nadia Belerique Body in Trouble

Artist Editions Ethan Murphy Tina’s Gas Bar

About

Artists

Residencies

Exhibitions

Digital Programs

Programs

Publications

Fogo Island Arts is a contemporary arts and ideas organization created with the conviction that art and artists have the capacity to instigate social change and offer new perspectives on issues of contemporary concern.

Fogo Island Arts welcomes a wide range of artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, curators, designers and thinkers from around the world as artists-in-residence, program collaborators and special guests.

Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program provides opportunities for artists from a wide range of disciplines to live and work on Fogo Island for extended periods.

Fogo Island Arts’ exhibition program includes major solo commissions and site-specific installations by selected participants of FIA’s international residency program.

The new Digital Program aims to provide a platform to promote exchange and knowledge production around issues of vital contemporary importance and support participants by offering fees, strengthening their capacity to build networks, and increasing the exposure of their work and ideas.

Fogo Island Arts presents regular public programs on Fogo Island and internationally, including artist talks, film screenings, open studios, educational workshops and, special projects and the Fogo Island Dialogues.

Fogo Island Arts’ monographic publication series accompanies major solo exhibitions and commissions presented at the Fogo Island Gallery. FIA Editions are produced in collaboration with selected residency alumni.

Rise & Fall of Tides Residency Recipients Announced

Katie Lawson & Tak Pham announced as 2023 recipients of the Hnatyshyn Foundation-Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency.

FIA Alum Brenda Draney opens solo exhibition at Power Plant

Interview: When Art Meets Environment

Liam Gillick interviewed on CBC’s The Broadcast with Paula Gale

Shorefast

Advisory Board

Zita Cobb

Eleanor Dawson

Paul Dean

Fabrizio Gallanti

Katy Graham Debost

Elisa Nuyten

Silke Otto-Knapp (1970-2022)

Willem de Rooij

Nicolaus Schafhausen

Kitty Scott

Monika Szewczyk

Stephan Weishaupt

Staff

Nicolaus Schafhausen

Iris Stünzi

Claire Shea

Press

2023

2022

2021

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Open Calls

The Rise and Fall of Tides

Labrador Current Foodways

Hnatyshyn Foundation Young Curator Residency 2022

FIA Internship Opportunity

A Note on the 2020 Open Call

Fogo Island Arts Residency 2018-19

Residency Partnerships

The Islands Arts Writing Residency

Hnatyshyn Foundation-Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency

Fogo Island Arts-Sobey Art Award Residency

Ars Via Prize Partnership

Bothy Project Design Residency

Pew Fellowship Consortium of Residencies

CIBC Artist-In-Residence

Digital Programs

AiR Initiatives
Armand Yervant Tufenkian: Submerged Narratives film screenings

AiR Initiatives
Cooking Sections: CLIMAVORE

Exhibition
The Big Church: Exploring possible futures for the former St. John the Evangelist Church

Monographs
Nadia Belerique
Body in Trouble

Artist Editions
Ethan Murphy
Tina’s Gas Bar