Home to Fogo with a natural vision
Newfoundlander sparks the cultural rediscovery of remote island
When she retired at 42 as one of Canada’s richest women, Newfoundlander Zita Cobb did what most people just dream about: she spent four years sailing around the world on a 47-foot yacht.
“Being at sea is the most amazing experience because you are forever in motion. And you can take your home with you,” the former hightech executive says.
Cobb grew up beside the sea on Fogo Island, an island off an island, the sixth of seven children and the only girl born to an illiterate cod fishing family. She left the island at 16 to study business at Carleton University in Ottawa.
“I wanted to see what was out there but I never stopped missing the rocks and the winds of home,” she says.
But the fishing communities of Fogo Island were dying as the cod dwindled. Cobb decided she needed to help grow another leg on the economy and fortify 400 years of Fogo Island culture at the same time.
“I wanted to articulate our unique community through architecture, furniture, quilting, hospitality and, of course, fishing and do it in a way that fostered international connectedness. That’s a lot of things to wrap in one project,” she says with a laugh.
“But I knew that contemporary art was a fundamental part of the equation. Why? Because it is about ideas that address the problems of modernity and it offers ways to establish a dialogue.”
This is not the first time art has come to Fogo Island. During the 1960s as the cod fishing industry was struggling, filmmaker Colin Low made 27 films in collaboration with the locals in a project called The Fogo Process. Along the way, the islanders, living in isolated communities unconnected by roads, started conversations with each other and began new initiatives together.
Cobb’s vision for Fogo Island was shaped by her travels overland through Africa. “I wanted the opportunity to think differently about the world and I became passionate about people I met along this journey who were close to the land and knew who they were. The gift of nature is so grounding and harmonizing.”
So what exactly has Cobb set about doing on Fogo Island? First she created the Shorefast Foundation, named after the lines that fix cod traps to the shore. Its primary goal is to invigorate culture, and three-month artists-in-residence programs are a major component.
Of course, these artists need places to live and work so the island’s traditional saltbox houses are being restored and Bergen-based Newfoundland architect Todd Saunders is creating six studios in a re-imagining of Fogo’s design esthetic. Locals are doing the building.
The sleek contemporary 29-room Fogo Island Inn is the incomegenerating piece of the puzzle. Slated to open April 1, it is committed to sustaining local traditions by finding new ways with old things. The chef is on board, developing kitchen gardens and local recipes based on the fish, berries and caribou. Quilts and hook rugs are being crafted and more than 60 islanders are in training.
Writers from the New York Times and National Geographic Traveler have already made pilgrimages to learn what Zita Cobb is up to.
“There’ll be lobster boil-ups in summer, berry picking amongst the caribou in fall, snowshoeing in winter and in the spring, giant blue icebergs will roll past,” she says. “And there’ll be sketching by the sea, quilting classes, square dancing and storytelling.”
“With the pace of change we are facing these days, people are skating through the urban experience without ever touching the ground,” Cobb says.
Fogo Island might just offer a little calm in the maelstrom.