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PLACE DIALOGUES  

Fogo Island

October 24-26, 2024  

Article

PLACE DIALOGUES 2024: Building Economic Momentum for Resilient Communities  

A flourishing society is built upon prosperous communities, and prosperous communities are only possible when they are supported by strong and resilient community economies. So, how do we strengthen community economies?  How do we build economic momentum for resilient communities?  

 
This was the focus of the 2024 PLACE Dialogues, co-hosted by Shorefast and Memorial University’s Centre for Social Enterprise on Fogo Island, October 24-26, 2024. Taking place at the Orange Lodge, Shorefast’s Commmunity + Business Hub, the program for the seventh PLACE Dialogues was inspired by Shorefast’s 18-month Community Economies Pilot that brought together five Canadian communities to explore opportunities to better align the pillars of government, business, and community around local economic development.  

The PDF program for the 2024 PLACE Dialogues, including participant list and bios, can be found here.

The PLACE Framework: co-created by Shorefast and academic researchers 

PLACE stands for: Promoting community leaders; Linking divergent perspectives; Amplifying local capacities; Conveying compelling stories, and Engaging ‘both/and’ thinking. These signify five key principles important to conducting community development work. The framework emerged from a SSHRC-funded research project led by Dr. Natalie Slawinski on Shorefast’s place-based approach to social enterprise on Fogo Island.  

 
The first PLACE Dialogues was held on Fogo Island in November 2018. Conceived as a knowledge-sharing component of the SSHRC-funded research project, the Dialogues convening model sought to gather community champions and leaders from across Newfoundland and Labrador.  

 
The initial 2018 workshop successfully generated new connections between community development professionals working in business, government, and philanthropy. Before the 2018 gathering ended, one of the participants offered to host a second workshop the following year in a different rural community. Since then, the Dialogues have been hosted in Petty Harbour, online during the pandemic, in Norris Point, and in St. Anthony. 

 
This year, the Dialogues returned to their place of origin for the first time under the theme Building Economic Momentum for Resilient Communities. Entrepreneurs co-mingled with community development peers working in the government and non-profit sectors as invited participants joined the workshop from diverse regions and backgrounds. The majority of participants live and work in Newfoundland and Labrador, and three participants with complimentary experience and skillsets joined from Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The PLACE Dialogues intentionally gather diversity and interdisciplinarity, because the challenges local places face in strengthening local economies take a multi-pronged, multi-sectoral approach. 

 
When coordinated action across each critical pillar of community, government, and business work together to build businesses, spark innovation, and solve for social change, this accumulates into the action and influence needed to generate economic momentum that builds resilient communities.  In coming together to discuss common challenges from the perspective of their fellow actors, community practitioners are able to uncover gaps in understanding and resources and work towards more effective solutions.  

 
The 2024 Dialogues program was organized around three main topical areas that were identified in Shorefast’s Community Economies Pilot as key leverage points for strengthening community economies. 

Key Idea 1: Attracting and Retaining Financial Capital 

The first panel of the 2024 Dialogues focused on Attracting and Retaining Financial Capital. The panel explored challenges such as the availability of funding resources, how to connect with and understand local needs to encourage uptake and engagement, and how to sustain a healthy system of local purchasing and re-investment. The panel also discussed the importance of local ownership and succession planning to ensure capital is retained in the community for future generations.  

One panellist spoke at length about the challenge they faced in attracting initial start-up capital for their social enterprise. For this entrepreneur, choosing direction meant both opening and closing doors – including initial launch decisions like the choice of operating structure. They sought advice from those in the room, asking, “how can entrepreneurs put themselves in a position to succeed in our province?” 

The question period revealed many robust suggestions and expressions of support. With regards to financial capital, participants in the room advised ensuring entrepreneurs leverage multiple types of funding that can work for their project, and patchworking opportunities (loans, financing, partnerships, and/or government funding) to get started.  

Key Idea 2: Building Local Entrepreneurial Capacity 

The second panel explored entrepreneurial energy in Newfoundland and Labrador. All panellists were current or former entrepreneurs who have built businesses and social enterprises based on place-specific assets and industries. All the ventures represented demonstrate a knack for identifying emerging trends and building businesses or projects that tap into key markets and opportunities while retaining community-centred values.  

The stories shared by the panellists were heartening and inspirational; the energizing effect of sharing successes is a key outcome of the Dialogues. But equally important is the identification of challenges and gaps in resources. One panellist shared that their business had benefitted from mentorship opportunities that arose due to serendipitous referrals, but there was agreement in the room that resources and mentorship opportunities must be strategically marketed/communicated to reach the entrepreneurs they intend to serve. Several panellists noted that their businesses could benefit from their communities developing assets or policies that are outside of their entrepreneurial scope but relevant (even essential) to their businesses. Again, the benefits of cross-sectoral collaboration were reinforced.  

The supportive exchange, knowledge transfer, and peer-to-peer conversation and problem-solving demonstrated on both panels are key to the Dialogues convening model. With few similar convening opportunities for community development practitioners in the province, and fewer still focused on rural regions, PLACE Dialogues participants often note that the networking and conversational platform provided by the Dialogues are invaluable.  

Key idea 3: Architectures for Collaboration 

Wrapping up the discussion and exchange portion of the Dialogues, panellists and participants moved into practice mode for breakout sessions that offered the opportunity to learn more about Shorefast and the Fogo Island Co-operative Society. Formed in 1967, the Fogo Island Co-operative Society is the Island’s largest employer and operates three processing plants. Participants were able to get an insiders’ tour of the Co-op’s Fogo plant and meet some of the team. Other groups visited Shorefast’s Punt Premises to learn more about the charity’s programming and community businesses, including Fogo Island Inn. Dialogues practitioners could also choose their own adventure and visit a variety of local shops and businesses, including artisan makers and Living Water Hydroponic Farm.  

Ending the day with more inspiration, participants visited two exhibitions at Fogo Island Inn and JK Contemporary and considered the role contemporary art can play in community economic development. Through art, artists and communities can tie into global networks and carve out new and exciting opportunities for belonging.  

Inspiring More Places: The Shorefast Network for Place-Based Economies 

To learn more about the PLACE Dialogues and the PLACE Framework, visit the Memorial University Centre for Social Enterprise website here. In 2023, a new book titled Revitalizing PLACE through Social Enterprise was released, co-written by academics and community practitioners. It is available via Memorial University Press as a hard copy and as an open-source PDF. 

The PLACE Dialogues and Framework are part of the emerging curriculum for the Shorefast Network for Place-Based Economies: a national initiative to catalyse the holistic development of local economies, big and small. 

Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed. Together, we can reimagine the future of economies—where place, people, and prosperity are interconnected for lasting impact.  

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Community Business Hub 

Article
June 26, 2024
Shorefast is establishing a Community Business Hub – a dedicated space to host and activate the economic potential of Fogo Island. 

Over the past five years, Fogo Island has hosted a series of innovative community events exploring how to strengthen our economic future, including the first PLACE Dialogues (returning to Fogo Island this fall); discussions led by Glenn Blackwood and Chief Mi’sel Joe, and more recently events with NLOWE and the newly formed Fogo Island Chapter of the Gander and Area Chamber of Commerce. Fogo Island has become recognized as a place that welcomes creative thinking, new opportunities, and locally grown solutions. 

Building on this momentum, Shorefast is establishing a Community Business Hub – a dedicated space to host and activate the economic potential of Fogo Island. 

The Community Business Hub will be a space to connect, learn and share, deepening relationships on Fogo Island and beyond, enabling community businesses and organizations working in partnership to discover meaningful business development opportunities specific to Fogo Island’s local context.   

As this project is in the early stages of development, we are sharing our ideas for potential activations as a starting point of discussion.  We look forward to exploring ways we can work with Fogo Islanders to bring this space to life, building the vision together to make this space a vibrant community asset for change. 

The Community Business Hub will be located in the Orange Lodge, JBA.  Built in December 1908, Orange Lodge No. 143 created an essential space for cultural gatherings and events that contributed greatly to the community. In 2021, Shorefast restored the building with the vision of creating a space in support of community as it once was. We have secured funding to transform the Orange Lodge into a Community Business Hub to support local economic development activity and give space that enables innovative ideas to emerge and take shape.  

Use of the Space  

We envision the Community Business Hub as a dynamic space for activating business and local economic growth. This center will not only nurture and amplify Fogo Island’s entrepreneurial spirit but also position our community as a leader in locally-driven economic strategies. By sharing our history and experience with visitors and collaborators, we hope to inspire and empower other communities working on their own community revitalization projects. 

Ideas for activating the Community Business Hub: 

Events:

  • • Host speakers from multiple disciplines and information sessions on impacting community economy activation 
  • • Host on-island networking events (e.g. Fogo Island Chamber of Commerce, NLOWE, etc.)  
  • • Meeting space with technical equipment (e.g. projector, screens, microphones) available to local organizations
  • • Broadcasting equipment to connect people meeting on-site with others from away 
  • • Space for visiting groups to become oriented on Fogo Island Economic Planning initiatives (e.g. art and cultural groups, visiting youth tours, other community leaders interested in place-based economic practice) 

Programming:

  • • Co-working space with strong internet for local entrepreneurs to work independently or collaboratively   
  • • Economic development programs to support decision-making:  
    • • Visual displays of key economic indicators and history of trade on Fogo Island 
    • • Community-focused facilitation sessions that use the community development approach to identify key local assets and development opportunities 
  • • Opportunity to integrate with entrepreneurship programs at schools and off-island networks through co-hosted learning sessions on business planning, local economy mapping 
  • • Integration with Shorefast Entrepreneur in Residency program; place for individuals to work from, learn alongside and contribute to programming 

Resource Centre:

  • • Resource library for books on place-based economic development practices; considering a book club to connect ideas learned from these books 
  • • Showcase various frameworks/models/case studies that have been created to highlight innovative work on Fogo Island in place-based economic development: 
    • • NFB / Memorial Challenge for Change (film history) 
    • • PLACE Model – Shorefast / Memorial (publication, Dialogue series) 
    • • Harvard Case Study 
    • • Pam Hall’s, Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge 
    • • Economic Nutrition CM 
  • • Home for resources related to community lending and information and guidance on how to secure funds and what funding sources are available   
    • • Have access to our team to connect local entrepreneurs looking for funds and off-island investors/lenders (e.g. CBDC, NLOWE, banks, government lending programs, etc.) 
  • • Home for resources related to business planning (e.g. templates for business startup, cash flow, etc.) to support entrepreneurs 

To explore ways we can collaborate, share feedback, or learn more, please visit the Orange Lodge at the following times to chat with the Shorefast team working on this project: Alicia, Colleen, Kyle, and Susan. 

Orange Lodge, 236 Main Road, Joe Batt’s Arm 

Wednesday, July 3rd: 3pm-4pm 

Wednesday, July 10th: 10am-11am 

Thursday, July 11th: 6:30pm-7:30pm 

Unable to visit us in person? Send us an email: hello@shorefast.org 

Or give us a call: 709.658.7830 

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Leadership in Place

Article
December 13, 2023
Shorefast’s CEO & Founder, Zita Cobb, on the importance of local leadership in the places we live. 
5-minute video excerpt of Zita Cobb’s Thomas d’Aquino Leadership Lecture, November, 2023

“Leaders are the deepest believers”  

In November 2023, Zita Cobb, CEO & Founder of Shorefast and Innkeeper of Fogo Island Inn, took centre stage to deliver the prestigious Thomas d’Aquino Lecture on Leadership. This two-part lecture series was hosted at the iconic National Art Gallery of Canada and the Ivey Business School in London, Ontario. 

The following is an excerpt of her speech with a focus on growing the capacity of place leadership. 

“Canadian Businesswoman and social entrepreneur Zita Cobb talks leadership” – Ottawa Business Journal 

Read the article

The Thomas d’Aquino Lecture on Leadership 

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Andria Hickey joins Shorefast and Fogo Island Arts as Head of Programs

Article
December 13, 2023
International curator Andria Hickey has been appointed Head of Programs at Shorefast. Hickey will oversee the holistic direction of Shorefast’s interdisciplinary programs, including Fogo Island Arts.

Born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, Hickey is a long-standing friend of Shorefast. Alongside her work with Fogo Island Arts, Hickey’s new role will encompass oversight of Shorefast’s robust arts program and environmental stewardship initiatives, as well as heritage sites and programs designed to center place, culture, and community.

Fogo Island Arts was established in 2008 with the belief that art and artists are visionaries that continue to bring new perspectives to the urgent issues of our time. The prestigious exhibition and residency program has welcomed a wide range of international artists, curators, and thinkers including Abbas Akhavan, Liam Gillick, Candice Hopkins, Brian Jungen, Kablusiak, Janice Kerbel, Sharon Lockhart, Ken Lum, Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa, Silke Otto-Knapp, and Jeremy Shaw, among many others.

Hickey joins Shorefast from The Shed in New York, the multidisciplinary arts centre where she led the visual arts program. Previously, she was a global Senior Director and Curator at Pace Gallery, where she established a new curatorial team and initiated the live arts program, Pace Live. During her tenure she curated numerous exhibitions such as monographic surveys of Jo Baer, Wifredo Lam, and Agnes Martin, alongside major thematic exhibitions.

Hickey says, “Fogo Island is an incredibly special place, geographically, culturally, and artistically. I am inspired by Shorefast and Fogo Island as an example of community resilience that is both holding on and reaching out to center new forms of cultural exchange, environmental sustainability, and economic development. The possibility of a shared dialogue across cultures, generations, and places is a vital part of forging a new vision for the future of our planet. The ability to offer time and space for artists, curators, writers, scientists, and other practitioners to create and connect is needed now more than ever. It is a great privilege to return to eastern Canada to begin this unique position, and I look forward to meaningful collaboration with artists, communities and colleagues on Fogo Island, and beyond.”

Zita Cobb, Co-founder of Shorefast, said: “Andria brings broad experience in program leadership and strategic planning to Fogo Island, as well as an esteemed curatorial career focused on global contemporary art. Her commitment to moving culture in new directions is deeply valuable to Shorefast’s work in community economic development.”

Read the Press Release
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Zita Cobb delivers the Keynote at the Evergreen Conference

Article
November 7, 2023
Shorefast’s CEO joined thought leaders, community members, private and public sector innovators, and city builders from across the country to talk about place as key to a resilient and connected future.

“Place holds all the answers.”

– Zita Cobb, Shorefast CEO & Founder   

In mid-October Zita Cobb, Shorefast’s CEO & Founder, delivered the keynote address at the annual Evergreen Conference. Held at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, the conference brings together thought leaders, community members, private and public sector innovators, and city builders from across the country who value place as key to a resilient and connected future. 

At Shorefast, we believe that place holds all our relationships. When we practice economic development that takes into consideration the context of where we live – the geographic and human assets in each place – we set ourselves up for a stronger economic foundation that can successfully modulate the ecological, economic, and social needs of a community. 

During her keynote, Zita reminded the crowd that “the opportunity for Canada is to figure out how we work at many scales.” Taking the local as our starting point, Shorefast’s work is to demonstrate how the proper tools and resources can enable other entrepreneurial communities to drive economic momentum and build toward the future they want.

Our national economy is strongest when it works toward the whole. Finding ways to stitch local economies into the national framework is central to what we do.

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Rocks have Stories to Tell – A Conversation with Geologist-in-Residence Peter Croal

Article
September 26, 2023

Throughout the year, Shorefast welcomes a variety of practitioners ranging from geologists to artists to chefs to Fogo Island as a part of our Residencies Program. An intended outcome is the exchange of ideas and perspectives that can lay the groundwork for reflection, pause, and new ways of seeing the world in front of us.  

Fogo Island shoreline. Photo by Alex Fradkin

A fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Peter Croal has been working in the field of environmental assessment and international development for over 35 years; his career has taken him to over 40 countries and he sits on the boards of several not-for-profit development organizations. This summer was Peter’s fourth year as a Geologist-in-residence with Shorefast.

The following is a condensed version of a conversation with Peter Croal.

What can we learn from studying the rock beneath us? How does it deepen our sense of connection to the world?    

When I take people on hikes around Fogo Island and Change Islands, I always start by saying, we come from the rocks and planetary processes.  We wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for the minerals and elements that make up rocks and enter our food chain.  

Life started three and a half billion years ago and the landforms we see today are all the result of plate tectonics, glacier movements and other earth systems. Moraines, lakes and rivers, ocean currents, fjords, sand deposits – these things form the basis of many of our cities and harbours and many of our industries. How the landscape is shaped and formed determines how our human civilization came to be; that’s all related to the rock cycle and planetary processes.  And it is not a static system. The earth is constantly changing and re-inventing itself.  

If we understand that we are part of a larger system called life – if we understand how it works – perhaps we can show more respect to those systems and protect and nourish them. The Grand Banks, which is home to historically one of the greatest fisheries, well, that was created by glacial and oceanic  process.   

What is the role of a residency program that brings geologists to Fogo Island right now?   

Well, it is education but also inspiration and stimulation. What the visiting geologists try to do is not just talk about rocks (eg – this is granite; this is sandstone). Rather: what is our relationship to these rocks? What does it mean when you see a volcanic rock? We see them as clues to an evolving and exciting  story.    

We take the story that the landscape is telling us and translate it for other people to enjoy. If you don’t study geology, you are basically walking on top of a book that you can’t read. We want you to read that story. We want you to see the connections to everyday life through the rocks and landforms that are under our feet. 

What role can geology play in community economic development? 

Fogo Island is one of the few places where you can walk across a magma chamber and at the same time see volcanic and sedimentary rocks in such proximity. Because the rocks are so well exposed, you can experience geological features that are hard to find in other places of the world. That brings people to a place. With Shorefast’s growing community science program, there are more opportunities to position Fogo Island as a hotbed for scientific research and expand career paths and opportunity in this place.   

On a more informal level, a lot of people come to meet the geologists-in-residence during hosted office hours who don’t know anything about geology but say “I just love rocks.” This is a place that sparks fascination and has a story to tell. 

How do you integrate other disciplines into your hikes and talks? And what value do you see in that?  

Just by nature of being outside and engaging with the world you touch all kinds of different disciplines. Two of the collaborative events that I co-hosted with art-based practitioners (one of whom was Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, an artist and contributor to Fogo Island Arts’ “Meltwater” exhibition) were focused on marine health, rising water levels, and climate change. Ocean health is changing because of climate change and industrialization. Oceans are becoming more acidic and certain currents are starting to change. All of this affects the fishery, which is of course relevant to Fogo Island and Change Islands.   

When two people with different backgrounds lead an event there’s an opportunity to speak about your discipline in a new way. Climate change is real, and shorelines are going to change. Having Alexa and me working together brings an arts-based audience and a science-based audience together and it forces us to think about things differently, exchange new ideas  and ultimately understand what is at stake from a new perspective.  

How do you get people to care about their natural environment and see themselves as a part of it?   

You have to tell a story. Facts, science, and fear don’t necessarily work that well. You have to find where people are at and build a story around their understanding of how the world works. And you need to explore what interests people through their own experiences. Instead of throwing science at people, start with: here you are standing on a rock. What does it mean to you as a person and what is your relationship to this planet?  What is the story that this rock or landform is telling you that can affect your life? 

In a 5-minute conversation I try to get across that you are here because of a 3.5-billion-year experiment. Ninety-five percent of all life that has existed on the planet has come and is now extinct. You are seeing the remaining 5% that has made it through. To survive you must be adaptable and resilient. And right now, we are not very adaptable or resilient as a species. We still want to party as if there is an infinite supply of oxygen, soil, and fresh water. And there isn’t. Earth’s life supporting systems are sending us messages every day through increased fires, floods, storms, biodiversity loss and disease.  

Shorefast’s sustainability efforts, the amazing rocks of Fogo and Change Islands, and the Fogo Island Inn are natural drawing points for people. Many of the people who come to the Inn and to Fogo Island are interested in having these conversations especially after the experience of being exposed to an economic  development model that is trying to live more harmoniously with people and place. I meet a lot of people who are taking what’s happening here in the arts, environment, and the economy back home to their communities. Shorefast and Fogo Island are catalysts and crucibles for generating and exchanging dynamic ideas around sustainability. The hope is that those ideas continue to spread elsewhere.  

Rocky shoreline. Photo by Paddy Barry.
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Crafting for Connection

Article
September 21, 2023

Shorefast programming provides people with a place to connect with their neighbours and learn more about the culture and nature of Fogo Island. 

Joyce Coffin (fourth from right) with the beginner rug-hooking group.

When Joyce Coffin led her first rug hooking workshop at the Punt Premises in the Summer of 2022, she wasn’t sure how many people would actually show up. “Shorefast first approached me to host the event after seeing some of the pieces I was selling at local stores around the island.” At the time, Joyce was one of only a few rug hooking practitioners on Fogo Island, with very few actively teaching.  

At the first class, over 20 people filled up the main room eager to learn— their ages ranging from 20 to 80. “We had to split the group into two batches, and I returned after dinner that same day to teach the rest of them,” Joyce recalls. Since then, the group has continued to meet weekly, gradually advancing their skills. While newcomers continue to join the group, the standing date has settled into a comforting routine: “We come together, work alongside each other, and chat.”  

Opened to the public in 2019 after a major restoration that was generously funded by past Fogo Island Inn guests, Don & Sheila Bayne, as well as grants from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Newfoundland & Labrador’s Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation department, the Punt Premises exists to preserve and promote our island’s fishing heritage. Over the past few years, it has evolved into a much needed hub for social convening and Shorefast programming—especially critical after the prolonged isolation of the pandemic.

“Having a place to connect and learn alongside your neighbour is an important part of community economic development,” Amy Rowsell, Shorefast’s Director of Community Engagement and Programming, notes. “It builds social capital and a sense of optimism for the future.”  

For Joyce, the Punt Premises has become a second home. “There’s a lot of stuff going on that wasn’t before. It’s a busy spot.”

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Art & Climate Change 

Article
September 1, 2023

Fogo Island Arts’ partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, the World Weather Network, and contemporary artist Liam Gillick, is shaping a global conversation around art, climate, and the importance of place. 

People gathered at the Weather Station during Arts Weekend on Fogo Island. Photo by Joshua Jensen.

When Fogo Island Arts first approached artist Liam Gillick to create a ‘weather station’ on Fogo Island in response to the global climate crisis, it was immediately clear to Gillick that this would be a tremendous opportunity to ground important global conversations within the context of a local community.  

“Art and science have always been linked historically,” Gillick explains. “Through this artwork I want to create a site for new thinking and a space designated to climate consciousness rooted in the basic requirements to gather and share data, while also being a place for education, reflection, discussion, and just getting together.” 

Launched in October 2022, along Waterman Brook’s trail near the community of Fogo, “A Variability Quantifier, 2022,” (more commonly known as the Fogo Island Red Weather Station), is a fully functioning weather station tracking weather data and a place for community gathering. Through the World Weather Network platform, it joins a constellation of art-inspired weather stations around the globe that are shaping conversations about the climate crisis through the perspective of artists, with many calling attention to the more dire situation in remote, ecologically sensitive areas of the world. 

The Fogo Island Red Weather Station construction team. Photograph by Joshua Jensen

“Artists help us see things and Fogo Island Arts has always been interested in approaching issues of economic, cultural, historical, and environmental concern through a different lens,” says Iris Stunzi, Fogo Island Arts’ Program Manager.  

“Fogo Islanders’ have a front row seat to changes in ‘Iceberg Alley,’ Gillick adds. “There is a lot of collective awareness and wisdom on this island. The artwork is about recognizing the daily consciousness of an island life; it is for and about the people of Fogo Island.”  

As a nod to the traditional and primary industry on Fogo Island, the weather station was designed with Fogo Island’s historic fishing stages in mind, a reminder of our powerful connections to the sea. For visitors to Fogo Island, witnessing the strong relationship between geography and people can often be a catalyst for involvement. This was the case with Steven and Lynda Latner, Inn guests who were inspired by their time on the island and wanted to lend support to our work. Their donation is helping to animate the Weather Station through programming.

Long reliant on triangulated weather updates from Twillingate, Fogo Islanders now have access to accurate, realtime weather data through an easily accessible website linked to the Weather Station that also acts as a repository for global weather-tracking.

Track the Weather: Fogo Island Weather Station

An acquisition of the National Gallery of Canada, The Fogo Island Red Weather Station is part of its National Outreach Initiative in which artworks from the collection are sited and maintained at localities across the country. 

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Cultural Innovation: A Community Talk with Architect Todd Saunders

Article
August 24, 2023

Design and architecture can be used to stimulate innovation and give centuries-old knowledge, traditions, and culture an economic foundation.

In early June, Todd Saunders, the Newfoundland-born, Norway-based architect behind Fogo Island Inn and the four artist studios on Fogo Island, hosted a talk for community members and visitors at Shorefast’s historic Orange Lodge building.  

Tracing the trajectory of his career, Todd provided context and advice for people at the beginning of their careers and offered his thoughts on the future of architecture – citing his belief in a hybrid approach that mixes different elements together, with the caveat that “You make great architecture when you know a place.”   

Originally tasked with a mandate to build Fogo Island Inn as demonstrative of “what has been learned from 400 years of clinging to this rock,” Todd shared insights alongside Shorefast CEO & Founder and Fogo Island Inn Innkeeper, Zita Cobb, about how leaning into the specificity of a place can be the very way that we connect the local economy to the global market.  

“Culture is a living thing. If it doesn’t innovate it dies,” Zita remarked. Through cultural innovation we can find ways to illuminate the specificity of our place and carry it forward in ways that support dignified and meaningful employment, and a greater sense of belonging.  

The following is an excerpt from a conversation between Zita Cobb and Todd Saunders on the 10th anniversary of Fogo Island Inn, shortly after the on-island community event.  

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Understanding our Geographic Context: The Importance of the Labrador Current 

Article
July 12, 2023

As an organization grounded in a place-based approach to economic development, we always start with what is in front of us.   

View of Greene’s Point. Photo by Paddy Barry.

On Fogo Island our geographic context is strongly informed by the Labrador Current.  

Positioned in the pathway of this current, our island has developed a culture and way of life (from the foods we eat to the livelihoods we’ve sustained to the traditions we love) that is deeply rooted in our relationship to the waters around us.

As with any relationship there are both challenges and benefits. The strong winds and colder temperatures that move across our landscape result in a shorter outdoor growing season; this can be contrasted with the abundance of marine life that the current supports – the primary reason people have settled here for centuries.   

The Influence of the Current  

Whether you live in the direct pathway of the Labrador Current or not, its influence is significant to our global health.  

Considered a distinct ecosystem, the Labrador Current helps keep the world’s oceans alive. Cold winter temperatures in the Labrador Sea are responsible for pushing oxygen-rich surface waters to depths far below the ocean’s top layer where they are dispersed by deep boundary currents. These oxygenated waters work in similar ways to our bloodstream – feeding oxygen-rich waters to the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans – giving context to the Labrador Current’s moniker as “a lung of the ocean.”  

Crucially, this oxygen stream supports marine life around the world, that in turn supports human life. On Fogo Island, it enables our traditional and primary livelihood: the fishery.   

Collecting Data for Academic Research  

As more revelations are made about the importance of this cold current and its influence on other oceans globally, our waters have become a significant area of research. Scientists are especially keen to understand how climate change is altering the current both through an increase in temperature and wind change. At the local level – community members and fishers are keen to know what warming waters will mean for the fishery as more species begin to migrate.  

One pillar of our Environmental Stewardship work on Fogo Island has us partnering with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Marine Institute at Memorial University to support academic research geared around tracking changes in our local waters. A key initiative to support this goal is Community Science – a collaborative community-based approach to building up scientific knowledge by employing trained community members who can bring their background lived experience (cultural, industrial, environmental) to each project. In rural and remote locations, where it is not always easy to bring in scientists for study, community members are bridging the gap.   

Recent projects on Fogo Island in partnership with community members and academic partners include ice tracking and species monitoring; both of which contribute to our understanding of changes in our local waters year-over-year.  

View of Brimstone Head. Photo by Alex Fradkin.

“We thought we were one of the four corners of the world; turns out we are at the centre.” 

Each year, during the onset of summer, Fogo Islanders bear witness to a changing climate through an experience of “Iceberg Alley.” The parade of icebergs that make their way down from glaciers situated along the coast of Greenland – via the Labrador Current – are a seasonal event; in recent years, however, it is clear to residents that there are significant fluctuations afoot. These fluctuations include increased glacial melt and a prolonged or sometimes negligible iceberg season.

This year for example, the season stretched from February (very early) to July (starting to get late). An increase in glacial flow has an impact on everything from the duration of our fishing season to rising water levels along our coast.  

While Fogo Island’s location at the edge of the North Atlantic Ocean has often earned it a reputation as remote, faraway – and a tongue in cheek title as ‘one of the four corners of the world’ – it is increasingly clear that coastal communities like Fogo Island are at the centre of the climate crisis, rather than off to the side.  

It will be coastal communities like Fogo Island that continue to experience an outsized impact and be extremely vulnerable to the changes in climate that we are all observing globally. To raise awareness both locally and internationally, Shorefast launched an artwork by artist Liam Gillick in October 2022, known colloquially as The Fogo Island Red Weather Station. The station is both a scientific tool to collect data and an artwork that seeks to communicate the value of life and knowledge in this place.

Growing our Environmental Stewardship Work 

The climate crisis can’t be confronted or resolved by any one community; it will take all of us working at different scales to begin to develop a unified way forward.  

On Fogo Island we have been building the case for an Environmental Stewardship program that is multi-pronged in approach, reaches across disciplines, supports the culture of people whose lives and livelihoods are linked to the sea, and can be scaled to create connection and collaboration across many sectors, with a focus on replicability across Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada.  

The Labrador Current is part of our life on Fogo Island; it’s significant to yours as well. 

Read more about our Environmental Stewardship work. 

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