New Inc

New Inc
Name	New Inc
Type	Incubator
Founded	2014
Founder	New Museum
Location	New York City

New Inc is an art, design, and technology incubator founded in 2014 by the New Museum in Manhattan to support early-stage creative practitioners and startups. The organization operates as a membership-based residency that bridges contemporary art, industrial design, software, and cultural production, fostering collaborations among artists, designers, technologists, and institutions. Its programs emphasize experimentation, public engagement, and cross-disciplinary research with connections to major museums, technology firms, universities, and cultural centers.

History

New Inc was launched by the New Museum leadership amid conversations with cultural institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum about models for supporting emerging creative labor. Early advisory input included figures associated with Rhizome, Eyebeam, and the Recurse Center, reflecting networks in digital art and software. The inaugural cohort drew on practitioners linked to Cooper Hewitt, PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and the MIT Media Lab, while partnerships were formed with technology entities like Google Arts & Culture, Microsoft Research, and Adobe. Over subsequent years New Inc hosted projects connected to festivals such as SXSW, Frieze New York, and Tribeca Film Festival, and engaged with academic programs at Columbia University, New York University, and Pratt Institute.

Mission and Programs

The mission centers on sustaining practices at the intersection of art, design, and technology, echoing priorities of institutions like the Walker Art Center and Tate Modern while adapting models from Startupbootcamp and Y Combinator for creative production. Programs include thematic labs, public programming, mentorship networks, and professional development workshops that reference methodologies from IDEO, Bauhaus, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Residency curricula have incorporated partnerships with archives such as the Library of Congress, research initiatives at Harvard University, and civic technology projects inspired by Code for America. Public-facing exhibitions and talks have featured collaborations with curators from the Hammer Museum, critics from Artforum, and journalists from The New York Times.

Residency and Membership

Membership and residency operate through application-based cohorts and curated selections with advisory input comparable to panels drawn from the MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, and corporate partners like Intel Corporation. Resident profiles have ranged from solo practitioners linked to Rhode Island School of Design and Yale School of Art to teams emerging from incubators such as Techstars and accelerator alumni from 500 Startups. Alumni include founders who later connected with investors like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, and collaborators who exhibited at venues including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Mentors have included academics affiliated with Columbia GSAPP, practitioners from Studio Olafur Eliasson, and entrepreneurs from Etsy.

Projects and Collaborations

Projects span interactive installations, hardware prototypes, immersive media, and socially engaged platforms that have been presented alongside programming at MoMA PS1, Park Avenue Armory, and the New-York Historical Society. Notable collaborations have involved teams associated with Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, the Serpentine Galleries, and research groups at Goldsmiths, University of London. Technology partnerships have connected residents to resources from NVIDIA, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi, while design collaborations referenced practices from Herman Miller and Frog Design. Cross-sector collaborations engaged cultural initiatives like Creative Time, civic partners including NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and international networks such as British Council and UNESCO.

Facilities and Locations

Located in the Bowery neighborhood, the workspace model mirrors creative clusters seen around SoHo, DUMBO, and Chelsea Market with flexible studios, fabrication labs, and exhibition spaces. Facilities have included makerspaces equipped with tools used by labs at Fab Lab MIT, audio suites comparable to those at Dubspot, and projection infrastructure similar to setups at Lincoln Center venues. The New Inc site enabled pop-up exhibitions and demos during events like New York Design Week, Creative Tech Week, and citywide celebrations coordinated with NYCxDesign.

Funding and Governance

Funding and governance combine support from cultural philanthropies, corporate sponsorships, and membership fees, drawing models from funding seen at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Corporate sponsorships have included tech firms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Samsung, as well as design brands like Muji and IKEA. Governance involves oversight by a board with representatives from the New Museum, independent curators, investors connected to Union Square Ventures, and academics from institutions like Princeton University. Financial support has also come through grant partnerships with agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and awards from organizations like the Prix Ars Electronica.

Category:Art incubators Category:Organizations established in 2014