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 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.