Claire Shea is a curator based in Tkaronto/Toronto who has worked with institutions of various scales, ranging from major museums and international biennials to artist residencies and nonprofit organizations across Asia, Europe, and North America.

 

She was part of the curatorial team for Gestures of Abundance, the inaugural Walk&Talk Biennial in the Azores (2025). She was Director of Fogo Island Arts, Ktaqmkuk/Newfoundland (2022–2024), Deputy Director of Para Site, Hong Kong (2017–2021), and Curatorial Director of Cass Sculpture Foundation, England (2008–2016).

 

Her curatorial projects include An Opera for Animals (Para Site, touring to Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2019), Meltwater (Fogo Island Arts), A Beautiful Disorder, the UK's first major outdoor sculpture showcase by contemporary artists from Greater China, and Associate Curator of the 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, We Have Never Participated (2014). She has edited and contributed writing to numerous exhibition catalogues and publications, most recently In Minor Keys: 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Koyo Kouoh (2026), and What to Let Go? (Sternberg Press, 2024), of which she was Managing Editor.

Anita Valrygg is a trained architect and founder of VALRYGG Studio who has designed high-end hotels, cultural spaces, and flagship retail interiors — for clients like A.P.C. Paris, the The National Gallery of Denmark, and boutique hospitality brands across Europe.

 

Valrygg now lives between two small islands on the coast of Helgeland, where she restores old homes, grows food in Arctic soil, and designs buildings that breathe with light, memory, and belonging. She works across architecture, interior design, product, and place-based art.

Thomas Gardeur grew up in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris. After studying in France and Australia, he began a career in the airline industry driven by a desire to make it more sustainable.

 

While seeking a slower, more meaningful life, he met Anita at a music festival in Sète and later joined her in Copenhagen, where he worked for a leading jewelry manufacturer. Their shared love of nature eventually led them north to a small farm in Northern Norway, where Thomas took his last corporate role in battery manufacturing.

 

Today, he runs a small organic microbakery, called Canelle Bakeri, on their island while delivering mail to the local community. Using local and seasonal ingredients—such as seaweed bread in winter and poppy-seed loaves in summer—Thomas finds joy in a grounded, sustainable rhythm of life shared with Anita.