I have just returned from a fascinating gathering on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada — Shore Time [Link], organized by Fogo Island Arts, a part of Shorefast [Link], the social enterprise founded by Zita Cobb in 2006 to build economic and cultural resilience on the island. Speakers and hosts were Kitty Scott, Leonor Antunes, Tom McDonough, and Rebecca Quaytman from the arts, Sebastian Herkner, Glenn Pushelberg, Tommy Smythe, Ernst Hupel, Tom Saunders, Stephan Weishaupt from design and architecture, and Zita Cobb, Shorefast Founder and CEO.

Some time ago, in a little book called Heritage, Performance, Design — Let me tell you about Hadrian’s Wall [Link] (original 2012) [Link] (updated 2020) [Link] (Chinese 2020) [Link] (Spanish 2023), I suggested that future-oriented and community-based heritage management might involve not the management of heritage assets, however they are conceived, but projects conceived under a model of performance design — acting-with traces and remains, past-presences, with a care for the future. I found myself returning to such implications of an archaeological sensibility in the inspiring conversations.

I’ll have much more to say in a later post. Here I am sharing some field-note images that capture some of the topics we discussed — design, craft, architecture, the arts, and senses of place.