Zita Cobb is the founder of the Shorefast Foundation, a private foundation that seeks to use art and culture – under the auspices of sustainability – to open up new perspectives for Fogo Island in the extreme north-east of Newfoundland, Canada. Until the 1970s this remote island made their livelihood from fishing, before the cod stocks were almost wiped out by large-scale industrial fishing, and large sections of the population moved to the mainland.
Through a scholarship programme, conferences, and various artists’ studios, the foundation today networks international artists, designers, and thinkers, with the local population during their time on the island. Film projects involving the resident Fogo Islanders, or cooperation between international product designers and indigenous craftspeople represent a sample of Shorefast’s agenda that has set itself the aim of halting the emigration from the island. And, at the same time, of opening up sustainable new sources of income for the indigenous population through these and other collaborative processes.
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Roger Bundschuh (*1966) is an architect. He lives and works in Berlin. Bundschuh teaches at the Institute of Architecture (DIA) in Dessau.
Zita Cobb (*1958) was CFO at the US company Uniphase until 2002. In 2008 she began the Fogo Island Arts initiative, a residency-based venue for artists, writers, musicians, curators, designers, and thinkers from around the world.