Cassilhaus: FOGO Island

Less than a year ago Ellen and I read an article in the New York Times about a tiny island off the northern coast of Newfoundland called FOGO and the extraordinary transformation of this sleepy economically depressed fishing community into a world class artist residency destination. Spearheaded by FOGO native and entrepreneur turned philanthropist Zita Cobb and her Shorefast Foundation, spectacular modern artists studios have been built or are in the process of being built in each of the six villages on the island and artists in all disciplines from across the world are being brought to live and work on FOGO. A high end luxury hotel is nearly complete. There is only one decent restaurant on the island but Zita believes if she builds it they will come and the transformation has begun.

It doesn't take much arm twisting to get my architect wife Ellen to go on a modern architecture road trip, even if the destination is on the other side of nowhere. We discovered that FOGO has two seasons-August and Winter. We opted for shoulder season and went in September and of course arrived the day before a once-in-five-decades direct hit from a hurricane--an auspicious beginning to a staggeringly wonderful trip.

(click on photos to enlarge)

On day one we were doing a miraculously good imitation of those guys on the Weather Channel reporting from where you don't want to be and nearly got ourselves blown off a hiking trail.

Just when you thought there were no other sentient beings out and about we pass by a pick- up truck with the bed completely filled with water that says "Frank the Boat Builder" on the side and the headlights are pointing to Frank himself building a "punt" in the garage just like his great grandfather did. The people of FOGO are warm and wonderful.

Boy is the weather spectacular after a hurricane. From day 2 on it was magic.