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.”