NEW CULTURAL POLICY THINK TANK LAUNCHES IN NEW YORK CITY
Monday, February 21, 2011
NEW CULTURAL POLICY THINK TANK LAUNCHES IN NEW YORK CITY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact:
Amber Henrie
(917) 270-0550
amber@inthelights.net
NEW CULTURAL POLICY THINK TANK LAUNCHES IN NEW YORK CITY
Organization to Focus on Policy that Strengthens Art, Culture, Community
and Environmental Sustainability
Artspolicynow.org New Platform for Sharing Data and Building Initiatives
NEW YORK, February 17, 2011 — Today New York City welcomes a new policy think
tank dedicated to cultural strategies for the 21st Century. The Institute for Culture in the
Service of Community Sustainability (ICSCS) will build synergies between arts and
other sectors around a platform of cultural, community and environmental sustainability.
Led by Paul Nagle and Lise Brenner, the organization will combine traditional research
and evolving technologies with the collective wisdom of the community to gain new and
deeper understandings of how culture works.
“From the trenches of Off-Off Broadway to the chambers of City Hall, Paul Nagle has
spent the last 20 years fighting for a stronger cultural ecosystem,” said former NYC
Councilmember Alan J. Gerson, for whom Mr. Nagle served eight years as cultural
policy director. “The important unifying frame of cultural, community and environmental
sustainability that he has created for ICSCS is a true and very needed innovation.”
ICSCS will develop strategies and recommendations that support artists; enhance the
operating environment for multiple sectors; foster strong, diverse neighborhoods and
communities; and strengthen New York City as an international creative economy.
“Humankind faces huge and existential challenges. Not accepting the limitations of time
and space, nor the creed that nothing can be other than it is, artists and cultural workers
can facilitate the great act of imagination that it will take for the human race to begin
creating a sustainable life,” said Executive Director Paul Nagle. “ICSCS sees the health
of the cultural community and the health of the greater community as absolutely
interdependent.”
In addition, ICSCS has launched artspolicynow.org, an interactive website that will
facilitate artists, policy thinkers and leaders from other sectors in working together on
issues of cultural, community and environmental sustainability. Those interested in
these issues can explore, engage and upload creative content, create profile pages,
initiate public discussions, share information and co-develop initiatives with other users.
The website will also be a searchable repository of ICSCS research and a valuable tool
to spot trends, identify and facilitate collaborations, as well as coordinate data
assembling and reporting across networks.
ICSCS is grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for its New York City Cultural Innovation
Fund award. “The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support ICSCS’ innovative
thinking about how we can integrate support for the expanding role of creativity in the
life of communities,” said Edwin Torres, Associate Director of the NYC Opportunities
Fund at the Rockefeller Foundation.
ICSCS has also received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the
Experimental TV Center and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The organization is an
affiliate program of Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, Ltd.
In celebration of the organization’s launch, a VIP Gala will take place on February 18,
2011.
###
About ICSCS
The Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability (ICSCS) is
headquartered in New York City and supports development of public policy that
articulates and strengthens art’s central role in civic life and enhances cultural,
environmental and community sustainability. Through regularly scheduled live events,
integrated with ICSCS’s highly interactive website, artspolicynow.org, ICSCS
assembles, interprets and disseminates new and existing empirical data and field
research to combine it with the collective wisdom of the community. The organization
facilitates artists, policy thinkers and leaders from other sectors to work together on
issues of cultural, community and environmental sustainability, to coordinate data
generation and to report across networks.
ICSCS is a 501(c)3 affiliate program of Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, Ltd. ICSCS is grateful to
the Rockefeller Foundation for its New York City Cultural Innovation Fund award. ICSCS has also
received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Experimental TV Center and The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Press contact:
Amber Henrie
(917) 270-0550
amber@inthelights.net
NEW CULTURAL POLICY THINK TANK LAUNCHES IN NEW YORK CITY
Organization to Focus on Policy that Strengthens Art, Culture, Community
and Environmental Sustainability
Artspolicynow.org New Platform for Sharing Data and Building Initiatives
NEW YORK, February 17, 2011 — Today New York City welcomes a new policy think
tank dedicated to cultural strategies for the 21st Century. The Institute for Culture in the
Service of Community Sustainability (ICSCS) will build synergies between arts and
other sectors around a platform of cultural, community and environmental sustainability.
Led by Paul Nagle and Lise Brenner, the organization will combine traditional research
and evolving technologies with the collective wisdom of the community to gain new and
deeper understandings of how culture works.
“From the trenches of Off-Off Broadway to the chambers of City Hall, Paul Nagle has
spent the last 20 years fighting for a stronger cultural ecosystem,” said former NYC
Councilmember Alan J. Gerson, for whom Mr. Nagle served eight years as cultural
policy director. “The important unifying frame of cultural, community and environmental
sustainability that he has created for ICSCS is a true and very needed innovation.”
ICSCS will develop strategies and recommendations that support artists; enhance the
operating environment for multiple sectors; foster strong, diverse neighborhoods and
communities; and strengthen New York City as an international creative economy.
“Humankind faces huge and existential challenges. Not accepting the limitations of time
and space, nor the creed that nothing can be other than it is, artists and cultural workers
can facilitate the great act of imagination that it will take for the human race to begin
creating a sustainable life,” said Executive Director Paul Nagle. “ICSCS sees the health
of the cultural community and the health of the greater community as absolutely
interdependent.”
In addition, ICSCS has launched artspolicynow.org, an interactive website that will
facilitate artists, policy thinkers and leaders from other sectors in working together on
issues of cultural, community and environmental sustainability. Those interested in
these issues can explore, engage and upload creative content, create profile pages,
initiate public discussions, share information and co-develop initiatives with other users.
The website will also be a searchable repository of ICSCS research and a valuable tool
to spot trends, identify and facilitate collaborations, as well as coordinate data
assembling and reporting across networks.
ICSCS is grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for its New York City Cultural Innovation
Fund award. “The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support ICSCS’ innovative
thinking about how we can integrate support for the expanding role of creativity in the
life of communities,” said Edwin Torres, Associate Director of the NYC Opportunities
Fund at the Rockefeller Foundation.
ICSCS has also received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the
Experimental TV Center and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The organization is an
affiliate program of Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, Ltd.
In celebration of the organization’s launch, a VIP Gala will take place on February 18,
2011.
###
About ICSCS
The Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability (ICSCS) is
headquartered in New York City and supports development of public policy that
articulates and strengthens art’s central role in civic life and enhances cultural,
environmental and community sustainability. Through regularly scheduled live events,
integrated with ICSCS’s highly interactive website, artspolicynow.org, ICSCS
assembles, interprets and disseminates new and existing empirical data and field
research to combine it with the collective wisdom of the community. The organization
facilitates artists, policy thinkers and leaders from other sectors to work together on
issues of cultural, community and environmental sustainability, to coordinate data
generation and to report across networks.
ICSCS is a 501(c)3 affiliate program of Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, Ltd. ICSCS is grateful to
the Rockefeller Foundation for its New York City Cultural Innovation Fund award. ICSCS has also
received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Experimental TV Center and The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
