Our Story

As the first museum-led cultural incubator, NEW INC was conceived of as a not-for-profit platform for furthering the New Museum’s ongoing commitment to new art and new ideas. Now in Year 10, NEW INC’s membership model continues to support a diverse range of creative practitioners with a values-driven program and safe space for gathering and developing new creative projects and businesses. In 2020, NEW INC launched Onassis ONX, an XR accelerator for artists, in partnership with the Onassis Foundation. NEW INC was cofounded by New Museum’s Toby Devan Lewis Director, Lisa Phillips and Deputy Director, Karen Wong in 2014.

 

KEY STATS


100 creative entrepreneurs annually


550+ alumni


120+ mentors annually


50% women, 12% gender non-conforming


54% Black, indigenous and people of color


595 jobs created to date


324 businesses created or retained


$27.3M raised by NEW INC members


$41M revenue generated


These numbers represent a seven-year cumulative total or average

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Our Space

Our former space next door to the New Museum is undergoing a renovation as part of the New Museum’s expansion. Until we return to the Bowery in our first purpose-built home within the New Museum, the temporary NEW INC space is located at 250 Hudson St.

NEW INC members have key cards to swipe through security and into the workspace. The workspace is located on the 7th floor and is accessible by elevator. Our space includes dedicated desks for teams of up to four people, bookable conference rooms, a kitchenette, equipment rental, and storage lockers.

Former space at the New Museum. Image credits: Naho Kubota

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Team

Salome Asega, Director

Salome Asega, Director

Salome Asega (she/her) is an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technology. Salome believes in leveraging the power of collective imagination to redistribute power, change culture, and shift policy. Before joining the NEW INC team in 2021, she worked at the Ford Foundation as a Technology Fellow supporting artists and organizations in the new media arts ecosystem. Salome has participated in residencies and fellowships with Eyebeam, The Laundromat Project, and Recess and has exhibited at the Shanghai Biennale, MoMA, Carnegie Library, August Wilson Center, Knockdown Center, and more. Since 2015, Salome has been teaching studio and design methodology courses in the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design.

 
Raul Zbengheci, Associate Director of Strategic Operations & Public Programs

Raul Zbengheci, Deputy Director

Raul Zbengheci (he/him) is a Romanian-American cultural organizer, producer, and director. If contemporary art and culture functions today as an archipelago composed of small islands, Raul situates himself in the waters between the islands, following the currents and floating softly between different mediums, technologies, and influences. He specializes in producing and commissioning ambitious large scale art projects while also using his skills as a producer to support community groups fighting for social justice. Prior to joining NEW INC, Raul worked with the Whitney Museum of American Art, PERFORMA, Times Square Arts, PROTOTYPE Festival, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and more. He is currently developing 10KC (10,000 Currencies), a role playing game for emergent art organizations.

 

Paul John , Head of Community

Paul John (he/him) is an artist, community organizer, photographer, and educator. His work is to connect people and create community via resource sharing, bookmaking, hosting events, and institution building. Paul co-founded Endless Editions and the Brooklyn Art Book Fair. Both organizations focus on creating free or low-risk opportunities in independent publishing and bookmaking by offering low-cost or free resources. Prior to working at New Inc, Paul previously developed the Risograph Printing program at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, was the Coordinator of Printing and Publishing at the Jan van Eyck Academie, and taught Risograph printing at the School of Visual Arts.
Paul is a board member at the Center for Book Arts. His future ambitions are to continue to foster non-competitive spaces for communities to flourish via ice cream making and hosting a breakfast residency.

 

Brian Policard, Program Manager

Brian Policard (they/he) is a community facilitator, cultural enzyme, and a descendant of Haitian care laborers and Congolese sapeurs. Their practice borrows from a bricolage of wisdom traditions grounded in ontologies that recognize the cycles and relationships through which we feel into identity. Prior to joining the NEW INC team, Brian collaborated with artist collectives, creative agencies, and other groups on projects that center liberatory work and communal care as praxis. Whether facilitating creative AI workshops with the AIxDesign community, project managing for KIN LLC, or helping artists in Boston distill and communicate their ideas across mediums, Brian engages with every collaboration as a unique opportunity to practice collective sense-making. Brian’s work is motivated by a desire to make communicating our dreams to those with whom we share physical and emotional space easier.

Chante Dyson, Marketing and Communications Assistant

Chante Dyson (she/her) is an artist, techie, and content creator. She is passionate about both digital art and technology, utilizing these tools to foster deeper emotional connections with global audiences while presenting art to them in new and exciting ways. Chante began her career working in the fashion industry for various publications such as Harper’s BAZAAR and InStyle, before making a transition into the contemporary art world in 2021. She has deep experience and a growing interest in creating solutions for membership-based communities. Her current work at NEW INC centers on marketing and communications, and she is actively building her professional experience in the fields of product strategy and design, building websites and mobile applications on the side for Black-women owned businesses and organizations.

 

Gatch Gabrielle Gatchalian, Production Coordinator

Gatch Gabriela Gatchalian (She/They/He) is a cultural worker, writer, artist and curator from Manila, Philippines. 
Largely working as a sort of midwife for the ideas of others, Gatch believes that art and any form of culture tend to achieve their greatest merits when the work and inquiry come from a place of sincerity. They believe in lowering the barriers of entry for artists and audiences alike, such that both making and witnessing are more accessible and as much for the people as possible. Prior to joining the NEW INC team, they were involved in the Year of Uncertainty at the Queens Museum, 98B COLLABoratory in Manila, and the Koganecho Area Management Center in Yokohama. They have also worked independently as a curator with a number of artists, alternative art spaces and nonprofits across Asia before moving to New York city in 2019.

 
 

Osmanée Offré, Department Coordinator

Osmanée Offré (she/her) is an administrative facilitator and overall creative of Haitian-American descent. Having worked across a wide range of organizations at the junction of media, entertainment, and art, Osmanée emphasizes the importance of creating systems and processes that serve individual people in order to foster the best environment for deeper creativity and connection. She believes that the big picture of our lives is made in the small details of the day to day, in the small ways we decide to show up for each other. 

Prior to arriving at NEW INC, she worked across both traditional and digital media companies including Grant Wilfley Casting, NBCUniversal, Group Nine Media and PBS Boston. Beyond her work at NEW INC, she continues her artistic and social justice practices through her involvement in grassroots NYC organizations such as RAPP “Release Aging People in Prison”.