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The Islands is a residency partnership between FIA and Art Metropole, Toronto, that aims to encourage arts writing and criticism in contemporary art. The Islands invites emerging and established arts writers and artists with a writing practice to think about the various roles of writing in the arts across two unique locations. Each successful candidate will have the opportunity to spend a month on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts’ residency program, followed by two weeks on Toronto Island at Artscape Gibraltar Point. The residency will culminate in a publication funded, published, and distributed by Art Metropole, in conjunction with Fogo Island Arts.

Established in 2014, the Young Curator Residency offers an exceptional Canadian curator between the ages of 25 and 30 the opportunity to spend six weeks on Fogo Island as part of FIA’s international residency program. During the residency, the curator works closely with FIA artists-in-residence, staff, and members of the community, and contributes to FIA initiatives. Candidates are selected based on their body of work, curatorial philosophy, and proposed residency objectives.

Fogo Island Arts has partnered with the Sobey Art Foundation In support of contemporary Canadian artists. One of the 5 artists short-listed annually for the Sobey Art Award is awarded a residency on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program.

Initiated in 2018, FIA is the inaugural residency partner of the Sobey Art Award, with the mandate to expand opportunities and exposure for Canadian artists internationally.

The Sobey Art Foundation’s support is a significant contribution to Fogo Island Arts’ Patrons Program, a major fundraising campaign launched in 2016 to support FIA programs and initiatives. The partnership between Fogo Island Arts and the Sobey Art Foundation reflects a shared understanding of the critical role that contemporary art plays in enriching and revitalizing communities.

The Sobey Art Award is the pre-eminent prize for contemporary Canadian art. Jointly administered by the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF) and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), the Award celebrates the careers of emerging Canadian artists through prize money and recognition.

A special partnership with the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. (Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries) offers recipients of the prestigious ars viva Prize for Visual Arts a residency with Fogo Island Arts.

The ars viva Prize is awarded annually to young artists living in Germany whose work is distinguished by a high level of artistic quality and a contemporary outlook. The prize includes two exhibitions at renowned art institutions in Europe, a financial award of 5,000 Euros each, the production of an artist’s edition, and a bilingual catalogue published by Sternberg Press, as well as a month-long residency with Fogo Island Arts.

In its inaugural year, Bothy Project, Fogo Island Arts and Fogo Island Workshops have partnered to produce Cross Currents, a residency and professional development project for craft-designer-makers based in Scotland and in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Cross Currents will explore the historical, artistic and social parallels between Scotland’s West Coast and Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada’s East Coast. These connections across the Atlantic include geology and landscape; fishing and seafaring, in their cultural and environmental guises; and connections of communities, Indigenous peoples, migrants, immigrants and settlers. Aspects of these parallels are present in Scotland and Newfoundland and Labrador, and offer a myriad of material for craft-designer-makers to explore, learn from and communicate through their practice.

The project has been generously funded through British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland’s Connect and Collaborate program, with additional support from Shorefast.

Fogo Island Arts is an international partner of the Pew Fellowship Consortium of Residencies, a project managed by the Alliance of Artists Communities and funded by Pew Fellowships in the Arts. As part of this biennial program, FIA has welcomed Pew Fellows Rea Tajiri (2019) and David Kessler (2021) for a six-week residency on Fogo Island.

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a multidisciplinary grant-maker and hub for knowledge sharing, dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. The Center invests in ambitious, imaginative, and catalytic work that showcases the region’s cultural vitality and enhances public life, and engages in an ongoing exchange of ideas concerning artistic and interpretive practice with a broad network of cultural practitioners and leaders. Established in 2005, the Center makes project grants in two areas, Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation, while twelve annual Fellowships provide unrestricted grants to individual artists working in all disciplines. The Pew Consortium of Artist Residencies extends the impact of Pew Fellowships by providing interested Fellows the opportunity to participate in a residency at one of the participating partner sites.

Fogo Island Arts (FIA) partnered with CIBC from 2016 to 2018 to establish the CIBC Artist-in-Residence Program. CIBC’s contribution of $150,000 over the three-year agreement enabled FIA to bring one established Canadian contemporary artist per year to participate in a residency on Fogo Island. Celebrated artists Paul P., Elizabeth McIntosh and Ashes Withyman were selected as the CIBC Artists-in-Residences.