The Possibilities of Places: Zita Cobb In Conversation with Anthony Kiendl

Join Zita Cobb, Founder and CEO of Shorefast and Innkeeper at Fogo Island Inn, and Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, for a conversation about the importance of culture in placemaking for cities and communities.

This talk is free and open to the public. The event will take place at UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street.

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Zita Cobb writes: “In a way, a small island is a good proxy for a small planet. Fogo Island, this particular small island, has endured, flourished and struggled for centuries. And you can see that, apart from war that we fortunately haven’t had to live through, most things that happened in the world have manifested in that little place. This is the magic of small islands: they are a complete entity unto themselves yet undeniably interconnected with the larger whole. Everything a person needs to live and thrive can be found in this place. My work on Fogo Island is inspired by this place. 

We are physical and social creatures, meaning-seeking creatures—everything we need exists in places. There was a time when people believed that we all lived in a global village. This caused a place blindness. Our human and business systems have evolved as if place didn’t matter, leading to the failure of economies, communities and cultures. The fundamental question that we are trying to resolve at this point in our human history is how the parts belong to the whole. How does a person relate to their local environment? How does that local place relate to the region? How does the local belong to the global?” 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Zita Cobb is an eighth-generation Fogo Islander, Founder and CEO of the registered Canadian charity Shorefast and Innkeeper of the award-winning Fogo Island Inn. Cobb graduated high school on Fogo Island before studying business in Ottawa, Canada. Following a successful career in high-tech, Zita returned to Fogo Island and established Shorefast and its set of social enterprises and programs to put another leg on the Island’s economy, to complement its ever-important fishery. Cobb has been a Member of the Order of Canada since 2016 and was a 2020 inductee to Canada’s Business Hall of Fame. She holds honorary doctorates from McGill University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. She volunteers her full time and energy for Shorefast’s charitable initiatives and community businesses.

Anthony Kiendl is an award-winning curator, writer, arts administrator and educator. Prior to joining the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2020, Kiendl was the Executive Director and CEO of the Mackenzie Gallery in Regina; the Executive and Artistic Director of Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg; and the Director of Visual Arts at the Walter Phillips Gallery and Banff International Curatorial Institute at the Banff Centre. Kiendl has lectured internationally and has co-organized panel presentations for Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Art Brussels, among others. He was curator of Contour 2011: The 5th Biennial of the Moving Image in Mechelen, Belgium, and recipient of the 2009 Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. In 2024, Kiendl was named to Vancouver Magazine’s Power 50 List.