From top left to bottom: Rene Anakwe, viole he, Lita Vinueza
NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator, announced its twelfth annual cohort for the September 2025 to June 2026 program cycle. The cohort of 74 new 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 opportunities to showcase their work to the public, including NEW INC’s annual DEMO festival at the close of the program year. In addition to its new cohort members, this year NEW INC will welcome five Anchor Members, established professionals joining NEW INC from adjacent industries and universities. Organized in partnership with Melco Group Inc., the Tokyo Geidai New York Project will welcome Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) to NEW INC as an Anchor Member. In addition, Anchor Members will rotate from Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University; Aichi University of the Arts; and the Tokyo-based architecture firm AS Co., Ltd.
The following cohort members are alumni from ITP:
Art & Code track
Extended Realities track
“Furthering the New Museum’s expansive work, NEW INC provides a home for multidisciplinary creatives who are pushing culture forward,” said Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum Lisa Phillips. “We are gratified to welcome the latest cohort and new anchor members into NEW INC’s extensive network and look forward to learning from their cutting-edge work.”
NEW INC’s twelfth cohort of new members includes individual practitioners, collectives, studios, nonprofits, and startups. The members include participants in five tracks: Art & Code, redefining cultural and digital landscapes in collaboration with Rhizome and supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation; Creative Science, employing modes of scientific inquiry to advance creativity and storytelling, supported by the Simons Foundation; Extended Realities, expanding the artistic potential for technology to blur physical and digital worlds, supported by EY Intelligent Realities Lab and Onassis ONX; Social Architecture, reconstructing social and public space through design and architecture, supported by the Jonathan D and Mark C. Lewis Foundation; and Cooperative Studies, designing care-based models for collective futures. In alignment with NEW INC’s mission to foster cultural value, many of these members are developing projects that emphasize social impact, addressing issues of racial equity, climate, access, education, and the future of work, among other pressing concerns. Over eleven years, NEW INC members have raised $28.9 million in investment capital, generated $45 million in revenue, established or retained 384 businesses, and created 686 jobs in New York City.
“We are thrilled to welcome our newest members to NEW INC’s expansive community, and we are excited to foster connections between their timely projects and initiatives,” said NEW INC Director Salome Asega. “Each year, NEW INC’s member cohort reflects what’s next in art, culture, and technology, and we are excited to support and learn from this outstanding group of creatives.”
NEW INC members have been recognized as emerging leaders in their respective fields, which traverse art, technology, design, fashion, architecture, urban planning, education, music and beyond. They have presented work at the New Museum, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, Ars Electronica, and Coachella, and have won awards and accolades from the Serpentine, the Emmy Awards, Fulbright Program, Creative Capital, the Webby Awards, LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative, Social Science Research Council Just Tech Fellowship, and Time Magazine’s “Most Influential People in AI.”
The Y12 (2025–26) member cohort follows below and information about each of their practices can be found at newmuseum.org/new-inc.