Imagination
Ideas that demonstrate originality and a willingness to explore new possibilities.
Innovative Arts & Culture Institution of Greater New York
For those who imagine what has yet to exist.
A philanthropic institution supporting artists, creators, innovators, and institutions working at the intersection of art, culture, and technology.
- Founded 2022
- Greater New York
- More than $40 million granted
Our Mission
To support people with extraordinary ideas — and help create the conditions in which those ideas become extraordinary works of art.
The mission of the Institution is to promote, advance, and support artistic and cultural expression in all its forms, with particular emphasis on creativity, innovation, technology, and emerging modes of artistic communication.
Our work encompasses a broad spectrum of creative disciplines, reflecting our belief that the arts cannot — and should not — be confined to traditional categories. We seek to encourage ideas that move culture forward.
What We Support
Creativity does not exist in silos. The most compelling work frequently occurs where disciplines overlap.
Visual Arts
Artistic expression across traditional and contemporary mediums, with room for experimentation and new approaches to the presentation of art.
Music
Musicians, composers, producers, and performers whose projects contribute to the evolution of sound, performance, and musical culture.
Film & Motion Picture
Storytelling through moving images, including innovative approaches to production, visual language, distribution, and audience engagement.
Digital & New Media
The expanding universe of digital creativity, and the ways technology creates new forms of expression and cultural participation.
Technology & Innovation
Projects that use emerging technologies to expand the boundaries of creativity, production, performance, and artistic experience.
Performance
Work that brings artists and audiences together through live, experiential, immersive, and multidisciplinary formats.
Design
The role of design and creative thinking in shaping environments, experiences, products, communications, and culture.
Emerging Forms
Creative disciplines that do not yet have clearly defined categories. The future will produce forms of expression that are difficult to describe using today's vocabulary. We want to remain open to them.
Art + Technology
Technology has always influenced the arts. Today, the pace of change is accelerating.
- The cameratransformed visual storytelling
- Recorded soundtransformed music
- Digital editingtransformed filmmaking
- Computer imagerytransformed motion pictures
- What comes nexthas yet to be written
New technologies are creating opportunities for artists to work in ways that would have been unimaginable a generation ago. We are particularly interested in the creative possibilities that emerge when technology becomes a medium for artistic expression — not a substitute for the artist, but an instrument in their hands.
Our interest is not technology for technology's sake. It is innovation in service of creativity.
- Create entirely new forms of work
- Build immersive experiences
- Reimagine storytelling
- Expand access to culture
- Explore new relationships between artist and audience
- Challenge conventional definitions of authorship
The Power of Possibility
Not every breakthrough looks like a breakthrough at first.
Throughout history, transformative artistic movements have often begun as ideas that challenged the prevailing definition of what art could be. New genres were once considered unconventional. New technologies were once considered experimental. New artistic languages were once unfamiliar.
We are interested in the space between what is and what could be.
That space is where experimentation happens. It is where new ideas take shape. And it is where the next generation of creative expression may begin.
We are particularly interested in the questions that will define the next era of creativity:
- What happens when technology becomes an artistic medium?
- How will audiences experience culture in the future?
- What new forms of storytelling are waiting to be discovered?
- How can emerging technologies empower artists?
- What happens when different creative disciplines intersect?
- What will the next generation of artists create that today's audiences cannot yet imagine?
There are no simple answers. And that is precisely what makes the future so compelling.
Our Philanthropic Approach
We recognise that meaningful creative impact cannot always be measured by conventional metrics.
Innovation
Approaches that challenge existing assumptions and explore new methods, technologies, and forms.
Artistic Excellence
Ambitious ideas deserve serious creative vision, discipline, and execution.
Cultural Impact
Work that contributes meaningfully to the broader cultural landscape.
Experimentation
Not every worthwhile experiment succeeds as intended. The freedom to experiment is essential to innovation.
Long-Term Thinking
Some of the most important contributions take years to develop. Philanthropy can provide that patience.
Some projects create immediate public impact. Others influence a discipline over time. Some reach millions of people; others profoundly affect a much smaller community. All can have value.
Our Impact
Since 2022 we have directed more than $40 million in grants and philanthropic support toward artistic, cultural, creative, and innovative purposes.
Financial support is only one measure. The true measure of philanthropy is what happens because that support exists.
- A project gets created.
- An artist gets the opportunity to experiment.
- A new idea becomes possible.
- A filmmaker tells a story.
- A musician develops a new body of work.
- A technology becomes a creative medium.
- An audience experiences something it has never experienced before.
- A new generation is inspired.
Connect
The most important ideas rarely exist in isolation.
We welcome inquiries from artists, creative organisations, cultural institutions, innovators, technology-driven projects, and philanthropic partners.
General Inquiries
Questions about the Institution and its work.
Philanthropic Inquiries
Grants, funding, and support for creative projects.
Partnerships & Collaborations
Institutional and cross-disciplinary work.