Annie
Coggan

Which place do you currently call home and where do you work on your projects?

I’m a design professor so most years I am in Brooklyn during the academic term and then I live in a small town in Mid-Coast Maine, Belfast, during the winter and summer term. This year Im on sabbatical so I get to be in Belfast for most of the year.

I try to time my projects according where I am. Small projects and writing gets done in Brooklyn. Large scale projects, chairs, building smocking get mocked up and worked on in Belfast. Belfast is in Mid-Coast Maine, about two hours from Portland, Maine, heading north.

Where is your studio located & how does it look?

In Belfast my work room is at the top of the house looking over the garden. But sometimes I work all over the house to collapse some functions-cooking/drawing, gardening/finishing furniture.

Are there any projects that are important to you personally, that you have recently completed or that you are still working on?

I’ve just come off a nice year of architecturally scaled smocking projects. First doing some large scale smocked tapestries that were commissioned by TOAST clothier, they were exhibited in London and then brought back and installed in a TOAST store on the Upper East Side in New York. Then I smocked a building in North Tawton, UK, in January. Asked by the Ruth Smith Gallery and RED MUD ARTS to cover the facade of the gallery in 128 feet of smocked hessian, I smocked the textile and hung it during a fabulous week of teaching smocking workshops and getting to know a small and vibrant arts community.

Do you have a favorite place in your area where you like to relax and linger?

In Belfast the best place for an oat latte and fresh berry muffin is Chase’s Daily. This is a family-run breakfast/lunch/gallery/farm stand/flower shop. It’s a really lovely place with its own set of community rituals. On Tuesday and Friday they bring fresh produce from the family farm. The staff brings in lovingly arranged vegetables for consumption. The farm helpers carry in galvanized buckets of cucumbers and lettuces, and the best weekly veggie sculpture is the radish bouquet. No one is allowed to purchase until the matriarch of the family inspects the installation and says-go. A morning at Chase’s means you have a good coffee, you have done your shopping and you have had chats and said hello to much of the town.

Are there any urgent political issues or problems in your region?

Belfast is a town that has changed quite a bit since the 90s. It is a very working-class, working-waterfront town and not on the tourist route to the pristine islands up north. But as any working-class place if the real estate is cheap, then artists will come so many of my neighbors here are artists and writers. And then as the town gets popular the working-class gets priced out. What the town is working on is affordable housing to keep Belfast as a year round town rather than a summer town.

In your opinion, what has developed well in the last 5 years—and what has not?

I worry that the city is not atune to their historic housing stock and the historic neighborhoods. Some modern builds have happened that could have been more sensitive to the historic nature of the town.

Do you know a hidden gem when it comes to local manufacturers—whether it’s arts and crafts, sustainable products or food?

I have become very spoiled by a local potter here in town. My dog really likes going into Laura’s shop and drinking out of her dog bowl, so I have bought some amazing bowls and gifts from her. It’s like I have a personal potter, I have my eye on some bright yellow cereal bowls next.

Is there anything particularly innovative in your region? Also in comparison to other places you have already visited?

The organic farm culture here is amazing and so important. We have two farmers markets in town of Friday and Saturday and the already discussed Chase’s Daily Farm. The town really feels like it’s organized around seasonal food. Some of the best restaurants in the country, the Lost Kitchen for instance, are in the area. So the food culture is extraordinary.

Do you have a secret restaurant tip that you would like to share with us?

The family favorite here is Taco Tuesday at Dos Gatos here in town. Really sublime Mexican food right on Belfast’s High Street.

We pile in no matter how many are at the house in the summer every Tuesday.

Is there a local shop whose products are only available in your region?

Getting Mid-coast Maine lobsters off the boat would be particular to the region. The Lobster Pound on the other side of the bay is a great treat.

Swan Island Blankets are special and coveted.

What are your 3 favourite apps that you use every day and couldn’t live without?

I use Instagram, now more as a diary rather than for attention. I’m not sure of anything else. I try to read rather than scroll.

I bought some amazing design books to accompany me this summer—Irma Boom’s Book Activist and Hella Jongerius’ new book Whispering Things.

Do you have any favourite newspapers or online magazines? And how do you keep up to date with politics or social and cultural issues?

World of Interiors digital is very fun.

Again I’m really trying to discipline myself to look at art and design books and read.

Imagine you could be mayor for a year—what would you change?

Public trash pickup. It would be nice not to pay a private company. Although going to the transfer station is quite fun, you say hello to neighbors, and sometimes you find a good piece of cast off furniture.

In Brooklyn, we have the best mayor in the world… Mamdani, so I’m good.

One last question: If you could choose another place to live—regardless of financial or time constrains—which one would you choose?

London—I feel very at home there. It has all the benefits of New York/Brooklyn but better managed, a faster subway, and a bit clearer city. And the design culture is very deep and has a nice easy relationship with craft and the art world. It’s not as rigid as the American design world.