This past weekend, I spent quite a bit of time in Nolita for the Festival of Ideas for the New City organized by the New Museum. The main drive for the festival according to the organizers was “to harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore the ideas destined to shape it” Hundreds of organizations, agencies and brands collaborated to put together a slew of events in terms of conferences, projects and a street fest.

The street fest in particular had quite a few innovative organizations promoting their causes and lots of artists promoting their work and gathering reactions from passerby.

Polish artist Olek, whose exhibit “Knitting is For Pus***” is set to close at the Christopher Henry Gallery at the end of this month, has a crocheted bedroom on display at the festival.

Urban Omnibus has been a showcase of good ideas for the future of cities, conceived in the public interest and tried and tested in the five boroughs of New York. They showcased a new series of Idea Posters that turn the language of ubiquitous marketing on its head by using a similar language to share examples of creativity and innovation in the urban realm.

I also liked the idea behind Green My Bodega, a farm-to-bodega initiative based in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. They are working to connect community members, local farmers and corner stores to create a healthier and more equitable food system.

Philanthropic agencies should take a good look at the genius behind The Ghana Think Tank. It’s a worldwide network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems in the “developed” world. The network began with think tanks from Ghana, Cuba and El Salvador, and has since expanded to include Serbia, Mexico and Ethiopia.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the package design of Hudson Valley Seed Library, even if their lovely products made me momentarily resent New York and my lack of garden/yard!

The festival also included a pop-up restaurant set up by the folks at East Village Dutch-Danish restaurant Vandaag. They took over the basement of a school and turned it into a lovely eating space with the help of local artist wares. I felt like striking a pose during a momentary romantic lapse caused by the candlelight!

The night ended with video projections on the New Museum building, as well as several buildings down Mulberry Street. Some of the them were magical.

Overall, the festival seems to have kick-started many conversations on the future new city and urban environments. I just got the feeling during some of the events and the street fair that a lot of people treated this as a novelty fair or had no idea what the purpose of the whole thing really was. Perhaps a better communications platform by the organizers before next year’s edition (if there is one) will help attract more people who are interested in the topics and educate more people who are not usually involved in such thinking. Looking forward to seeing some of the ideas come true!