NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator, welcomes its seventh annual class for the September 2020 to August 2021 program cycle. For year seven, NEW INC offers five member tracks, including three new tracks and several renewed partnerships: Creative Science, Cultural Futures, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), Hybrid Practice, and XR: Bodies in Space.
64 members working at the intersection of art, design, technology, and entrepreneurship will participate in NEW INC’s yearlong program which includes a values-centered business education curriculum, mentorship, and community events. This year, members range from individual practitioners—such as artists, designers, and storytellers—to collectives, studios, nonprofits, and startups. 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 racial equity, climate, access, education, and labor, among other pressing humanitarian concerns.
NEW INC’s membership model continues to support a diverse range of creative practitioners, with 62% of members identifying as people of color, 59% women or gender non-conforming, and 22% LGBTQIA+. Over six years, members have raised $23.3 million in investment capital, created 550 jobs, and established or retained 277 businesses in New York City.
With a two-year grant from Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation, NEW INC launches its Creative Science track. Members are exploring creative and novel applications for science and technology through the lens of art and design. This track includes creative practitioners who are exploring the intersection of art and science through artificial intelligence, robotics, biotech, digital manufacturing, and other areas of research through their creative practice.
With leadership support from the Knight Foundation, NEW INC launches the new Cultural Futures track, where teams are asking what comes first: culture or the technology through which we perceive it? Through experimental partnerships with museums, cultural institutions, libraries, or civic hubs outside of New York City, members of this track will engage in co-creative research and exploratory design that reimagines sustainable tech in the culture sector. Additionally, as part of this track, NEW INC is partnering with MCN (Museum Computer Network) to develop a new web platform for sourcing and sharing repeatable case studies exploring how technology has been used in the museum and cultural sectors. The new platform is set to launch Spring 2021.
Entering Year 2, our Art & Code track, asks members to consider what communications technology might look like in 50 or 100 years. How might we explore the deep future of communications through speculative technologies and unprecedented ideas? In partnership with Rhizome, this track focuses on experimentation and collaboration between artists, engineers, and technologists where members benefit from specialized mentorship opportunities, research labs, and events.
Members in the new Hybrid Practice track are exploring the ways in which arts, tech, and design can address the mounting challenges faced today. NEW INC offers an ideal home base for multidisciplinary practitioners who are experimenting and problem-solving around creative, speculative, and interdisciplinary projects. Creative makers in this track include data scientists, designers, architects, app developers, and community organizers who occupy a niche in the margins, at the seams, and in other liminal arts, tech, and design spaces.
New this year, the XR: Bodies in Space track was created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and is partially supported by National Endowment for the Arts. Track members include artists, performers, choreographers and XR producers who are interested in how bodies, identities, and culture are represented and transformed through live experiences mediated by technology.
Additional member support is provided by The Ford Foundation through scholarships for members whose work is embedded in communities of color and disability, and by Cisco through subsidies for women and people of color who could otherwise not participate.
Generous program support for NEW INC Year 7 is provided by: Jonathan D. Lewis Foundation; Deutsche Bank; National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts. Over the course of the twelve-month program, NEW INC members participate in a professional development and mentorship program designed 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 annual Demo Day presentations and other public programs presented with our partners.
Members of the Creative Science track, supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative: Edward Cutting, Gal Nissim, Heidi Boisvert, Janet Biggs, Josie Williams, Krystal Persaud, Laura Splan, Leslie Ruckman, Qinqin Yang, Remina Greenfield, Shihan Zhang, Shuyi Cao, Sue Huang, Tin Nguyen.
Members of the Cultural Futures track, supported by the Knight Foundation: Aaron Jones, Aisha Shillingford, Andrew LeClair, Ashley Jane Lewis, Caspar Lam, E Roon Kang, Jonathan Brandel, Lee Tusman, Noya Kohavi, Sisa Bueno, Terry Marshall, Yujune Park.
Members of the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) track, in partnership with Rhizome: Bhavik Singh, Christopher Clary, Itziar Barrio, Johann Diedrick, Johanna Flato, Lula Mebrahtu, Mark Ramos, Nahee Kim, Pearlyn Lii, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga, Yeseul Song, Ziyang Wu.
Members of the Hybrid Practice track: Amelie Lamont, Andrea Chiney, Andrew Chee, Arianna Deane, Ashley Kuo, Eric Moed, Genel Ambrose, Jared Katzman, Jennifer Garcia, Morgen Bromell, Penelope Phylactopoulos, Shanna Sabio, Vi Vu, Warner Sabio.
Members of the XR Bodies in Space track, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts: Brandon Powers, Carla Gannis, Eva Davidova, Jonah King, Juecheng Chen, Kate Machtiger, LaJune McMillian, Mary John Frank, Matt Romein, Mirelle Phillips, Nikita Huggins, Yuge Zhou.
