Festival IDEAS CITY

The 2013 iteration of IDEAS CITY, the biennial festival created to explore the future city and to effect change, will take place in downtown New York from May 1–4, 2013. Formerly known as the Festival of Ideas for the New City, IDEAS CITYwas founded by the New Museum as a major collaboration between dozens of downtown arts, education, and community organizations to harness the power of the creative community and imagine our collective future. This ambitious initiative is built upon the core belief that arts and culture constitute a driving force behind the vitality of urban centers worldwide.

The inaugural festival was launched in May 2011. It included a three-day conference of symposia, lectures, and workshops with visionaries and leaders, including exemplary mayors, architects, artists, and technology experts; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery featuring over 100 organizations and small businesses presenting model products and practices for a better city; and hundreds of independent projects and public events attracting over 70,000 participants. The overwhelmingly positive response led to the festival’s establishment as a unique biennial event in New York City with international satellite programs organized in intervening years. Audi Urban Future Initiative is the Lead Sponsor of IDEAS CITY.

The theme for IDEAS CITY 2013 is Untapped Capital. As the world’s resources continue to be endangered, depleted, and destroyed, we all need to imagine new solutions and develop innovative approaches and practices. Rather than focusing on deficits, IDEAS CITY 2013 will encourage intensive examination of surplus resources that may be under- recognized or underutilized: Untapped Capital. There are many ways of thinking about what might define “untapped capital,” ranging from people and raw materials, to ideas, networks, varied resources, and modes of communication. The topic of Untapped Capital provides a touchstone for alternative thinking about new methodologies, new solutions, and new goals.

History of IDEAS CITY

The Festival of Ideas for the New City 2011 was conceived and directed by the New Museum as a major collaborative initiative between downtown New York organizations and served as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate. A natural outgrowth of the New Museum’s ongoing commitment to public education and civic outreach, the concept quickly attracted a core group of downtown organizing partners who continue to meet regularly. Besides the New Museum (founder), the organizing partners for IDEAS CITY 2013 are Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Architectural League of New York, Bowery Poetry Club, New York University Wagner School, and the Drawing Center.

For more informations : www.newmuseum.org