Shore Time Speakers & Hosts
This year’s speakers and moderators span fields including contemporary art, design, and architecture, bringing diverse perspectives to the conversation of how these creative practices can respond to people, place, and the challenges of our time.
Leonor Antunes
Leonor Antunes studied Sculpture at the Fine Arts University of Lisbon and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe. Her recent exhibitions include on the persistent inequality of leonor’s days*. CAM - Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2024); the apparent length of a floor area. Fruitmarket Gallery (2023); medir, cuidar, enlaçar. Serralves Collection, Forum Arte Braga, Braga, Portugal (2022); discrepancies. La Loge, Brussels, Belgium (2022); the homemaker and her domain. Festival D’Automne, Paris, France (2021); and a seam, a surface, a hinge, or a knot. official Portuguese representation at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Venice, Italy (2019). Her work has been included in Aichi Triennale (2022), Gwangju Biennial (2018), 57th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2017); Sharjah Biennial 12, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2015); Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach 2013, Fellbach, Germany; 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2014); 3rd Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2011). Antunes currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Sebastian Herkner
Sebastian Herkner (born 1981) studied Product Design at HfG Offenbach University of Art and Design. In the year 2006 Sebastian Herkner founded his own studio. Since that time, he has designed furniture, lamps and smaller items for manufacturers such as And Tradition, Cappellini, ClassiCon, Dedon, Duravit, Fritz Hansen, Janus et Cie, Man of Parts, Poltrona Frau or Thonet. His works have won numerous accolades – among others the IF Award, the Iconic Award and the Elle Deco International Design Award (EDIDA). As Guest of Honor to imm cologne 2016, Sebastian Herkner provided the design for “Das Haus”. He was elected the 2019 “Designer of the Year” by Maison&Objet. In 2021, Herkner won the most prestigious design award in Milan: the EDIDA award for Best Designer of the Year. In 2022, he was one of the curators at Homo Faber, along with Robert Wilson, Judith Clarke, Michele de Lucchi, and Naoto Fukasawa commissioned by the Michelangelo Foundation in Venice.
The most important design museums (including Die Neue Sammlung, Munich or the Vitra Design Museum) have included his designs in their collections.
Hella Jongerius
Hella Jongerius is one of the world’s leading designers, known for her research-driven approach and vigorous work on uniting craftsmanship and industrial production, infusing mass-produced objects with imperfection, sensibility, and character. She founded Jongeriuslab design studio in 1993 and has worked on commissioned projects for Vitra, Maharam, the interior design of the Delegates’ Lounge at United Nations Headquarters, and the cabin interiors for the Dutch airline KLM. She has initiated independent projects, with exhibitions at the Design Museum London (2017), Die Neue Sammlung at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2017), the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (2018), Lafayette Anticipations in Paris (2019), Gropius Bau in Berlin (2021), and Salon94 in New York (2024). Jongerius’s work is in permanent collections at MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Die Neue Sammlung, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, and Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2024, the Vitra Design Museum acquired her archive. She lives and works in both Berlin (Germany) and Arnhem (Netherlands).
Tom McDonough
Tom McDonough is a U.S.-based art historian, critic, and professor specializing in modern and contemporary art. He teaches in the Art History Department at Binghamton University - SUNY and has held visiting posts at Harvard and UC Berkeley. McDonough has authored and edited influential books on postwar European avant-gardes and the Situationist International and written widely on art, politics, and culture for journals like Artforum and October.
Glenn Pushelberg
Glenn Pushelberg is co-founder of the global creative design studio Yabu Pushelberg. He met business partner George Yabu on a chance encounter years after graduating from the School of Interior Design at Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, in 1976. Their meeting led to them sharing a studio space, where they discovered their shared philosophy and aesthetics in design, which eventually led to the inception of Yabu Pushelberg. Since the founding of their studio, the duo has established client relationships with some of the biggest names in hospitality and fashion, including Aman, EDITION Hotels, Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, LVMH, Printemps, Bergdorf Goodman, and Tiffany & Co. They recently unveiled the interiors of Aman's first standalone residential project, Aman Residences Tokyo; Bruno Mars' lounge and jazz bar at Bellagio Las Vegas, The Pinky Ring; the Raffles Sentosa Singapore all-villa resort, which opened in March 2025; as well as the JW Marriott Hotel Tokyo, The Chancery Rosewood Asaya Spa in London, and The Palace Muli in Beijing. The studio approaches each project holistically, shaping environments through interior design, architectural lighting, art consultancy, styling, branding, and wayfinding, ensuring a cohesive vision across every scale. This integrated approach extends to bespoke furniture and lighting for individual projects, alongside collections designed for global partners such as Molteni&C, B&B Italia, Glas Italia, Tribu, Salvatori, HC28 maison, and more.
R. H. Quaytman
R.H. Quaytman is a visual artist and occasional author. She is best known for an ongoing series of painting exhibitions, which she conceives as one ongoing project, like chapters in a book. This method began in 2001 and includes a variety of historic and contemporary subjects pertaining to both the place where the paintings are first shown and the history of painting. They will continue to the end. Quaytman’s work has been exhibited widely and written about in the Americas, Europe, and most recently China.
Tommy Smythe
Tommy Smythe’s contagious enthusiasm and fun-loving approach to decorating has made him a household name in design. For more than 25 years, he has shared the message of practical yet beautiful living with wide audiences through television, print, social media, and speaking engagements. Renowned for his masterful mix of fine art, vintage and antique finds, and modern furnishings united by exceptional colour sense, Tommy has built a reputation for timeless, personal interiors full of character. In 2020, Tommy joined longtime collaborators Lindsay Mens and Kate Stuart to cofound TOM Design Collective. Rather than launching independent studios, they envisioned bringing together top design talent under a shared banner committed to uncompromising quality, transparency, and deep respect for clients. TOM has grown into a studio of more than twenty designers and technicians delivering full-service residential design across North America. Guided by the ethos Traditional Or Modern, the collective creates homes that are layered, personal, and enduring.
Hosts & Co-organizers
Zita Cobb
Growing up on Fogo Island, Zita developed a deep belief in the inherent value of place and profound respect for the human ways of knowing that emerge from respectful relationships with nature, culture, and community. She held senior financial roles in the high-tech industry, notably with JDS Fitel, subsequently JDS Uniphase, where she contributed to building the company into one of the most successful high-tech innovators in history. Zita returned home to Fogo Island in the early 2000’s and, along with her brothers Anthony and Alan, founded Shorefast. In 2016, Zita was awarded the Order of Canada. She volunteers her time and energies to the active direction and management of Shorefast and its projects on Fogo Island.
Ernst Hupel
A principal of his own design firm and an interior designer for over thirty years, Ernst’s story with Fogo Island began when he joined Fogo Island Inn’s original design team, helping shape its distinctive character and bring its spaces to life. Since the Inn opened, his fingerprints are everywhere - in the details, energy, and sense of place it evokes.
Since then, Ernst considers Fogo Island one of his favourite places in the world and keeps a home there which he generously shares with visitors, artists, and family. His influence touches nearly every corner of Shorefast’s work: from housing and heritage restorations to product and partnership development, merchandising, events, and the ever-evolving interiors of the Inn. Over the years, he has also cultivated lasting partnerships that continue to enrich the Inn’s legacy and strengthen its connection to the wider world.
Todd Saunders
Todd Saunders is a Norway-based Canadian architect known for infusing his contemporary buildings with an artistic sensibility that is deeply attuned to northern terrains. His use of natural materials and striking geometries distinguishes him as one of the most celebrated architects of his generation, constructing buildings that acknowledge vernacular histories while creating something entirely new. Born in Gander, Newfoundland, Saunders studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax and McGill University before travelling extensively across Europe. He founded Saunders Architecture in Bergen, Norway, in 1998, developing a portfolio of commissions across Scandinavia, Canada, America, and beyond, including Fogo Island Inn and the four Fogo Island Arts’ artist studios. Saunders lectures worldwide and has served as a visiting professor at Cornell and Yale universities. He pursues personal book projects, including SHARE: Conversations about Contemporary Architecture — The Nordic Countries, reflecting his commitment to the wider world of architectural design.
Kitty Scott
Kitty Scott is a leading Canadian curator, writer, and senior arts administrator whose work spans major art institutions and major international exhibitions. Scott is Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts/Shorefast and, as Chief Curator of the 15th Shanghai Biennale, recently presented Does the flower hear the bee?, at the Power Station of Art. She is known for shaping contemporary art discourse through ambitious programming and sustained collaborations with artists. Scott has held key curatorial posts, including Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. She served as the Carol and Morton Rapp Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Previously, she was Chief Curator at London’s Serpentine Gallery and Director of Visual Arts here at The Banff Centre, where she oversaw residencies, exhibitions and the Banff International Curatorial Institute. Scott was a core agent for dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012. With Sally Tallant, she co-curated the 2018 Liverpool Biennial, Beautiful world, where are you?. In 2017, she curated Geoffrey Farmer’s exhibition for the Canada Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. Across these roles, she has championed a wide range of contemporary artists while publishing extensively in catalogues, books, and journals.
Stephan Weishaupt
For Stephan Weishaupt, founder of Man of Parts, Avenue Road, and Yellow Wood, design is about relationships. Weishaupt’s intuition, worldview, and above all, affinity for connecting people is what helps him bring the best of the world of design together into a truly original experience.
True to form, his focus and his measure of success is the quality of the relationships he has built with the world’s top designers and brands who have come to trust him as a true collaborator.
A philanthropic practice that spans decades has fueled Weishaupt’s commitment to providing a sustainable future for the business, our colleagues, collaborators, and clients, through socially responsible business practices, relationships, and giving back to our global community, we are contributing to a better future for our planet.