The Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability (ICSCS) launches the organization with a Benefit Gala tonight in Tribeca. Led by Executive Director Paul Nagle and Lise Brenner, ICSCS 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 has also launched ArtsPolicyNow.org, which is an interactive website that invites those interested in these issues to explore, engage and upload creative content, create profile pages, initiate public discussions and share information.
The desire to strengthen New York City as an international creative economy is at the heart of the organization’s mission. Executive Director Nagle had this to say about ICSCS: “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…ICSCS sees the health of the cultural community and the health of the greater community as absolutely interdependent.”
Tonight’s Benefit Gala will celebrate the Institute’s establishment. Highlights of the evening will include:
*Sound and visual installations by Future Archaeology, a collaborative of Brooklyn-based artists exploring the “cybernetic nature of ecosystems”. Participating artists include Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Thomas Dexter, Ellie Irons, Dan Phiffer, and Matthew Radune.
*Live music by The Renaldo The Ensemble, a band that uniquely blends clowning, vaudeville, tango, hip hop and rock.
*The Self-Portrait Project, which is, according to its website, “ a glorified photo booth…the participant chooses how and when to shoot him/herself.”
*Video art and 3-D hologram teleporting technology by 3-Legged Dog.
*Music to keep guests and patrons dancing until the wee hours will be provided by DJ Douggie Style.
Visit www.artspolicynow.org for information on the Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability.
Comments