Mission Statement
Founded in 2025, Idle Hands supports emerging and mid-career artists working across, between, and against disciplinary boundaries.
Through the provision of time, space, and financial resources, Idle Hands and the Idle Hands Incubation Award enable process-driven artistic inquiry that challenges conventional assumptions about meaning, objects, and activity. Idle Hands prioritizes practices grounded in experimentation and critical reflection, with particular attention to work that embraces risk, failure, chance, and generative conflict as essential components of artistic exploration.Idle Hands envisions a cultural ecosystem in which artistic practice is recognized as an essential human endeavor rather than a discretionary pursuit.
At a time when public and private funding for the arts is increasingly constrained, Idle Hands affirms the essential role of artists in shaping critical thought, cultural memory, and collective imagination. The organization advocates for sustained investment in experimental, non-linear, and anti-disciplinary practices as vital to a resilient and reflective society.The Founding Team
Linden Renz
Founder & Creative Director
For nearly two decades, Linden Renz has been an active and steady presence in Brooklyn’s creative landscape. A creative producer specializing in live events across fine art, experimental music, and performance, he brings together artists, audiences, and spaces with thoughtful execution and a strong collaborative sensibility. Stewarding and managing hybrid live-work environments for almost fifteen years, he understands firsthand the conditions artists need to flourish.
As both a patron and practitioner of the arts, Linden has consistently supported artists across disciplines, resulting in exhibitions across Singapore, Berlin, Tokyo, and London. Through sustained community engagement, Linden has contributed to the vitality of contemporary culture with projects at the Park Ave Armory (NY), Pioneer Works (NY), Issue Project Room (NY), Kunst Museum Den Haag (Netherlands), and R Gallery (Malta). He holds a degree in Media Studies from The New School.
For nearly two decades, Linden Renz has been an active and steady presence in Brooklyn’s creative landscape. A creative producer specializing in live events across fine art, experimental music, and performance, he brings together artists, audiences, and spaces with thoughtful execution and a strong collaborative sensibility. Stewarding and managing hybrid live-work environments for almost fifteen years, he understands firsthand the conditions artists need to flourish.
As both a patron and practitioner of the arts, Linden has consistently supported artists across disciplines, resulting in exhibitions across Singapore, Berlin, Tokyo, and London. Through sustained community engagement, Linden has contributed to the vitality of contemporary culture with projects at the Park Ave Armory (NY), Pioneer Works (NY), Issue Project Room (NY), Kunst Museum Den Haag (Netherlands), and R Gallery (Malta). He holds a degree in Media Studies from The New School.
Gabrielle Sirkin
Founding Program Director
Gabrielle Sirkin spent nearly seven years at Microsoft on the Global Brand Team, managing Arts and Cultural Partnerships. She led and championed projects to advance innovative and emerging technologies for institutions including The Natural History Museum London, Art Basel, The Hip Hop Museum, and The Sol LeWitt Estate.
Gabrielle holds a Master’s degree in the History and Theory of Photography from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She began her early career in editorial media production as Chief of Staff for renowned photographer Platon, with a later focus at the intersection of art and technology with the Future of Storytelling. Between 2016 and 2020, Gabrielle co-founded a gallery in the East Village for emerging and mid-career artists. She is currently an art advisor, curator, and brand builder living between New York and Mexico City.
IHIA Cycle Two
Guest Selection Committee
Nick Fortugno
Director of the Digital Game Development Program, City College of New York
Nick Fortugno is Director of the Digital Game Development Program at City College of New York, having designed and realized CUNY's first game design major, and is an entrepreneur, interactive narrative designer and game designer based in New York City. He is a founder and principal of Playmatics, an interactive development company. Playmatics has created a variety of digital and real-world experiences for organizations including Pro Publica, Red Bull, AMC, Disney, American Museum of Natural History, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent. For the past twenty years, Fortugno has been a designer, writer, and project manager on dozens of commercial and impact-based games and served as lead designer on the downloadable blockbuster Diner Dash and the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life.
Nick is a Lead Artist on the Frankenstein A.I. project and has worked extensively on interactive narrative projects in a variety of formats. Nick is also a co-founder of the Come Out and Play street games festival, winner of the Indiecade's 2019 Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Award and hosted in New York City and around the world since 2006 and is co-creator of the Big Urban Game for Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2003. Nick has taught game design and interactive narrative design for 20 years at institutions such as Columbia University and the Parsons School of Design and has participated in the construction of game design and immersive storytelling curriculum at several universities, culminating in the creation of the public Bachelor of Science program at City College. Nick holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. Some of Nick's writing about interactive narrative can be found in the anthology Well-Played 1.0: Video Game, Value, and Meaning, published by ETC-Press.
Liana Sananda Gillooly is an ethicist, curator, and field builder working at the intersection of psychedelics, culture, and emerging technology. In 2019 she founded North Star, an ethics advisory practice, to help psychedelic-sector leaders navigate the responsibilities of an emerging industry. She serves as a Board Member of MAPS after leading fundraising and strategy for the organization for over six years. She currently serves as Principal Liaison to Tristan Harris at the Center for Humane Technology, amplifying one of the most consequential voices in the global effort to shape how humanity governs, and lives alongside, AI and other civilizational technologies.
Earlier in her career she worked as an art gallerist and represented musicians and visual artists, exhibiting at SCOPE during Art Basel Miami. She curated a 100,000 sq. ft. immersive art environment for the world's largest psychedelics conference, designed to transport 12,000 attendees out of conventional conference space and into the liminal. Her curatorial practice is rooted in the belief that culture is the vehicle through which humanity remembers how to live in more whole and interconnected ways, helping to metabolize a fractured culture's disenchantment into something that can hold awe once more.
Liana has long been devoted to earth-based ritual practice, permaculture design, and death doula work. Her engagement in systems change is rooted in the belief that humans hold a sacred duty, as stewards of the earth and inheritors of social systems, to build a thriving and resilient future in collaboration with the more-than-human world.
Nick Fortugno is Director of the Digital Game Development Program at City College of New York, having designed and realized CUNY's first game design major, and is an entrepreneur, interactive narrative designer and game designer based in New York City. He is a founder and principal of Playmatics, an interactive development company. Playmatics has created a variety of digital and real-world experiences for organizations including Pro Publica, Red Bull, AMC, Disney, American Museum of Natural History, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent. For the past twenty years, Fortugno has been a designer, writer, and project manager on dozens of commercial and impact-based games and served as lead designer on the downloadable blockbuster Diner Dash and the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life.
Nick is a Lead Artist on the Frankenstein A.I. project and has worked extensively on interactive narrative projects in a variety of formats. Nick is also a co-founder of the Come Out and Play street games festival, winner of the Indiecade's 2019 Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Award and hosted in New York City and around the world since 2006 and is co-creator of the Big Urban Game for Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2003. Nick has taught game design and interactive narrative design for 20 years at institutions such as Columbia University and the Parsons School of Design and has participated in the construction of game design and immersive storytelling curriculum at several universities, culminating in the creation of the public Bachelor of Science program at City College. Nick holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. Some of Nick's writing about interactive narrative can be found in the anthology Well-Played 1.0: Video Game, Value, and Meaning, published by ETC-Press.
Liana Sananda Gillooly
Principal Liaison, Center for Humane Technology & Board Member,MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
Liana Sananda Gillooly is an ethicist, curator, and field builder working at the intersection of psychedelics, culture, and emerging technology. In 2019 she founded North Star, an ethics advisory practice, to help psychedelic-sector leaders navigate the responsibilities of an emerging industry. She serves as a Board Member of MAPS after leading fundraising and strategy for the organization for over six years. She currently serves as Principal Liaison to Tristan Harris at the Center for Humane Technology, amplifying one of the most consequential voices in the global effort to shape how humanity governs, and lives alongside, AI and other civilizational technologies.
Earlier in her career she worked as an art gallerist and represented musicians and visual artists, exhibiting at SCOPE during Art Basel Miami. She curated a 100,000 sq. ft. immersive art environment for the world's largest psychedelics conference, designed to transport 12,000 attendees out of conventional conference space and into the liminal. Her curatorial practice is rooted in the belief that culture is the vehicle through which humanity remembers how to live in more whole and interconnected ways, helping to metabolize a fractured culture's disenchantment into something that can hold awe once more.
Liana has long been devoted to earth-based ritual practice, permaculture design, and death doula work. Her engagement in systems change is rooted in the belief that humans hold a sacred duty, as stewards of the earth and inheritors of social systems, to build a thriving and resilient future in collaboration with the more-than-human world.
IHIA Cycle One
Guest Selection Committee
Natalia Villalobos
VP of Inclusion Strategy and Execution, The New York Times
Natalia Villalobos is the founder of Transit - a collective of strategists, world builders, program developers, and designers seeking to foster a more socially connected society. She is also a VP at The New York Times where she redesigns systems and produces programs that bring people together at the speed of trust.
Prior to her time in media, Natalia led global programs at Google centering gender equality and racial equity that supported millions of people annually. Natalia's background in the arts most recently spans being a mentor at New Inc. (Extended Realities) and strategically advising Web3 collectives Refraction and Poolsuite.
Her decades long presence in the Bay Area included leading arts & culture for the first autonomous floating city, and she was a member of the award-winning Five Ton Crane collective. Natalia believes paradigm-shifting work comes from cross-disciplinary experimentation and unbridled imagination.
Natalia Villalobos is the founder of Transit - a collective of strategists, world builders, program developers, and designers seeking to foster a more socially connected society. She is also a VP at The New York Times where she redesigns systems and produces programs that bring people together at the speed of trust.
Prior to her time in media, Natalia led global programs at Google centering gender equality and racial equity that supported millions of people annually. Natalia's background in the arts most recently spans being a mentor at New Inc. (Extended Realities) and strategically advising Web3 collectives Refraction and Poolsuite.
Her decades long presence in the Bay Area included leading arts & culture for the first autonomous floating city, and she was a member of the award-winning Five Ton Crane collective. Natalia believes paradigm-shifting work comes from cross-disciplinary experimentation and unbridled imagination.
Lance Weiler
Founding Member & Director Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab
Lance Weiler is an American storyteller, artist, and pioneer in immersive and interactive narrative. His work spans film, theater, games, and emerging technologies, exploring how stories can unfold across platforms and in collaboration with audiences. He is widely recognized for pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling through participatory experiences and large-scale narrative experiments.
Weiler is the creator of award winning projects such as Pandemic 1.0 and Where There's Smoke, which blend live performance, digital media, and real-time audience interaction. His work has been presented at institutions and festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Art Basel, the World Economic Forum, the Tribeca Film Festival, and Lincoln Center.
He serves as a professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he is the Director of the Digital Storytelling Lab. Through both his creative practice and academic work, Weiler continues to shape the evolving landscape of immersive storytelling and narrative innovation.
Lance Weiler is an American storyteller, artist, and pioneer in immersive and interactive narrative. His work spans film, theater, games, and emerging technologies, exploring how stories can unfold across platforms and in collaboration with audiences. He is widely recognized for pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling through participatory experiences and large-scale narrative experiments.
Weiler is the creator of award winning projects such as Pandemic 1.0 and Where There's Smoke, which blend live performance, digital media, and real-time audience interaction. His work has been presented at institutions and festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Art Basel, the World Economic Forum, the Tribeca Film Festival, and Lincoln Center.
He serves as a professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he is the Director of the Digital Storytelling Lab. Through both his creative practice and academic work, Weiler continues to shape the evolving landscape of immersive storytelling and narrative innovation.