Grace Hermez is our first ever Creative Practitioner-in-Residence at NEW INC, the acclaimed cultural incubator of New York’s New Museum. This is year 13 of the program, and we want to follow every step of Grace’s experience.

Therefore, we will take a glimpse into her year and time with NEW INC, with a monthly diary post written by Grace herself.

About Grace Hermez:

Grace Hermez is an Aramean Syrian interdisciplinary multimedia artist and an architect from Helsinki, Finland. She focuses her architectural work on adaptive reuse and socially engaged architecture. Grace also explores some of these above-mentioned areas within her architectural practice, Beito.

Her interests with wanting to explore socially engaged architecture include human-centered design, examining the use of power within urban design and trying to bring attention to how architecture views and impacts marginalized communities within the city. 

Alongside her architectural work, Grace’s main multidisciplinary focus is video and multimedia art, which is playful in nature while exploring chaos, pop culture and surroundings she finds curious.

Throughout the one-year NEW INC program, Hermez will divide her time equally between New York and Helsinki, working with NEW INC remotely as well as locally with Helsinki based projects.

Grace’s NEW INC Diary

October

October went by so fast in NYC. The fall has been blessing us with a lot of sun and colors. The month started with me getting a dedicated mentor here at NEW INC. I got paired with Noushin Radnia, a super cool architect and artist. Since then, I’ve mostly been working on clarifying my project and getting different kinds of mentorship along the way.  I have also been planning different sidequests here supporting my focus on NEW INC like articles and art projects.

The vibes at NEW INC have been really chill, with lots of music, brainstorming and bouncing ideas around with other people.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time in Brooklyn this month. Idk why, but I feel like most of the exhibitions, people and things happening are over there.

I’m kinda sad about leaving at the end of next month to go back to Finland, even though I’ll be back here soon. But I also can’t wait to be saunamaxxing in Helsinki.

Okay bye, see you next month!

September

Hi!

I’ve been living in NYC for a little over three weeks now, and it’s been going by way too fast. The first week flew by with NEW INC camp days, and the rest have been filled with events, exhibition openings, and other NEW INC program. I’ve met so many cute people, averaged 12,567 steps a day, and spotted many many rats. <33 

Stay tuned for next months diary post…

In collaboration with:
The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York · City of Helsinki · Consulate General of Finland in New York · NEW INC