NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator, welcomes its sixth annual class for the September 2019 to June 2020 program cycle. For year six, NEW INC offers six member tracks, including three new tracks and several renewed partnerships: Interactive Experiences, Museum Technology, Creative Experiments, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), Ideas for the City, and Equitable Platforms.
Approximately one hundred members working at the intersection of art, design, technology, and entrepreneurship will participate in NEW INC’s yearlong professional development program, with access to state-of-the-art equipment for physical prototyping and resources and an expanding network of mentors. This year, members range from individual practitioners— such as artists, designers, and storytellers—to collectives, studios, nonprofits, and start- ups. In alignment with NEW INC’s mission to foster cultural value, many of these members are committed to projects that emphasize social impact, addressing issues of data privacy, climate, access, education, and labor, among other pressing humanitarian concerns.
Reflecting on the first five years of NEW INC, the program has issued a five year report that showcases notable milestones. NEW INC’s membership model continues to support a diverse range of creative practitioners, fifty-four percent of whom are women or gender-nonconforming individuals and fifty-five percent of whom are people of color. Over five years, members have raised $17 million in investment capital, created 392 jobs, and established or retained 175 businesses in New York City.
New this year, the Experiments in Art and Technology track, supported by Nokia Bell Labs and created in partnership with Rhizome, provides artists, creative technologists, indie game designers, preservation researchers, interaction designers, and others making and researching born-digital art with mentorship from Rhizome and Nokia Bell Labs staff members and with opportunities to participate in special events.
Members in the new Ideas for the City track, with lead support from the Jonathan D. Lewis Foundation and additional support from the Kresge Foundation, and created in partnership with IdeasCity, will creatively tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing our society today, such as education, social justice, climate change, urban issues, and other social impact themes.
Members in the Equitable Platforms track are creating new opportunities for equal participation in culture. Projects and businesses include music companies exploring new models for revenue sharing, business cooperatives redefining labor practices, cultural and community- specific gathering spaces and labs, technologies for generative art, and social platforms that address economic inequality, persistent racial disadvantages, and representation gaps in creative industries.
With renewed support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, this year’s Museum Technology track members will research, design, and prototype new technologies aimed at providing museums with transformative modes of public engagement.
Also returning this year, the Interactive Experiences track welcomes studios, start-ups, and creative projects working with emerging technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, video game design,and immersive installations.The Creative Experiments track,now supported by Science Sandbox, engages creative practitioners who are exploring artificial intelligence, robotics, biotech, digital manufacturing, and other science-based areas of research through their practice.
Over the course of the ten-month program, NEW INC members receive professional development training and mentorship to support their projects and foster individual growth. Previous members have been recognized as emerging leaders in their respective industries. They have presented work at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and Ars Electronica, and have won awards and commissions from the Serpentine, Verizon 5G Labs, Creative Capital, and the Bessie Awards. Additionally, members have the opportunity to present their work at NEW INC’s twice- annual Demo Day presentations and other public programs presented with our partners.
Members of the 2019–20 Museum Technology track, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, include Henna Wang and Michael Reynolds (Gesso), Glenn Cantave and Idris Brewster (Movers & Shakers), E Roon Kang and Andrew LeClair (908A), Adrian Sas, Kate Stevenson and Chris White (DOTDOT), Sisa Bueno (Vuevelo), and Noya Kohavi.
Members of the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) track, supported by Nokia Bell Labs and in partnership with Rhizome, include Ari Melenciano; Molly Soda; Kalli Retzepi, Agnes Cameron, Gary Zhexi Zhang, and Sam Ghantous (Foreign Objects); Mindy Seu; Mark Ramos; Laurel Schwulst; Andrew Demirjian; Sarah Rothberg; Ladan Mohamed Siad; Kinlaw; and Ziyang Wu.
Members of the Interactive Experiences track include Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting (Tin&Ed), Rad Mora, Reese Donohue (Tempo), Jesse (Jesus) Ayala (Fovrth Studios), Rosalie Yu, Maria Kozak and Jane LaFarge Hamill (BAANG), Andrew J. Levine (Scanalogue), Pearlyn Lii and Connie Bakshi (nonstudio), Phillip David Stearns (Open Vault), Tony Patrick (Tenfold Gaming Initiative), Mary John Frank, Michelle S. Brown (DaedaLabs), Vi Vu and Piyali Sircar (Curio-Lab), Carrie Kengle and Bruno Kruse (Machine Centered), Timothy Leung and Mark Alan Johnson (XIX Collective), Mattia Casalegno, Damjanski, Drew Burrows (LMNL Space), Mirelle Phillips (Studio Elsewhere), Eddie Chu, Lauryn Siegel, Kate Machtiger, Kat Mustatea, Milan Koerner- Safrata (SCRNPRNT), Roi Lev and Nim Shapira (Nim & Roi), Alison Greenberg and Seth Miller (aflow), Kristin Lucas, and Nikita Huggins.
Members of the Creative Experiments track, supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative, include Namita Modi (MAD+FAB), Xin Liu and Gershon Dublon (slow immediate), Charlotte McCurdy, Daniel Grushkin and Veena Vijayakumar (Biodesign Challenge), Krystal Persaud (Grouphug), Hannes Bend (breathing.ai), Heidi Boisvert (futurePerfect lab), Laura Splan, Erica Bernhard (COVALENT), Janet Biggs, Frank Melendez (bioMATTERS), Lana Z Porter (Somersault), and Keith Kirkland (WearWorks).
Members of the Ideas for the City track, supported by the Jonathan D. Lewis Foundation with additional support from the Kresge Foundation, include Antya Waegemann, Christopher Woebken, Houman Saberi and Raul Enriquez, Franc Camps-Febrer, Aaron Jones (WEB MODEL DOT SPACE), Maria Chercoles, Rebecca Hui (Roots Studio), Lily Kwong and Rebecca Chasin (STUDIO LILY KWONG), Wendy Brawer (Green Map), Arianna Deane and Ashely Kuo (A+A+A), Genel Ambrose (Good Mirrors Aren’t Cheap), Patrick Jaojoco (Decolonial Mapping Toolkit), and Joseph Cuillier (The Black School).
Members of the Equitable Platforms track include Anthony Marshall (Lyricist Lounge), Luke Cheng (Superorganic), Torin Blankensmith, Austin Robey and Collin Lewis (Ampled), Skylar Jessen (DinWorkshop), Khalid Livingston and Greg Genco (outlet.fyi), Jon Cohrs, Stefani Bardin, Abhita Austin (The Creator’s Suite), and Yang Wang and Zhenzhen Qi (ZZYW).
