Newmindspace is a New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

- and Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

-based urban arts collective founded in 2005 by Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken. The pair organizes free, monthly events in cities throughout North America. Using a mailing list and their website newmindspace.com to communicate with their community, Newmindspace hosts all-ages events that generally attract teenagers, twentysomethings and people in their early 30's. Their events have inspired other groups to undertake similar projects in cities around the world.

Events

• Subway Parties
  Subway party
  A subway party is a celebration that occurs on a mass transit system. Generally, people meet at a predetermined station in their city's mass transit system, wait until their numbers have achieved critical mass, and board the train...
  
  
• Urban Capture the Flag
  Capture the flag
  Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
  
  
• Public pillow fights
  Pillow fight flash mob
  A pillow fight flash mob is a social phenomenon of flash mobbing and shares many characteristics of a culture jam. The flash mob version of massive pillow fights is distinguished by the fact that nearly all of the promotion is Internet-based...
  
  
• Bubble battles, where hundreds participants use bubble toys simultaneously
• Massive (2km+) murals
• Blacklight-lit cardboard tube fighting Lightsaber
  Lightsaber
  A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
  
   battles

Ideology and inspiration

Newmindspace is loosely connected to the Toronto Public Space Committee

Toronto Public Space Committee

The Toronto Public Space Committee is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that defends the city’s public space from corporate and private forces, including cars and outdoor advertising...

, and considers reclaiming public space

Public space

A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...

 the most important goal of their activities. They also claim they are committed to "inventing new ways of having fun", pointing out that most cities lack free, quality entertainment for young people. Other events, such as their urban easter egg

Easter egg

Easter eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime.The oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans...

 hunts or Night Lights, are intended to be public art installations modeled after the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple who created environmental works of art...

.

Sources

• McGinn, Dave. "Don't stop the guerilla party train". Dose magazine, 18 Aug 2005.
• Lazarovic, Sarah. "Revelers See Stars at Underground Celebration". Globe and Mail, 16 Aug 2005.
• "Subway parties". CBC
  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
  
  's The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
  George Stroumboulopoulos
  George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos is a Canadian television and radio personality, best known as the host of CBC Television's George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and being a VJ for Canadian music television channel MuchMusic...
  
  , 12 Dec 2005.
• "Space Invaders". National Post
  National Post
  The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
  
  , 4 Nov 2006.
• "Reclaim the City, One Party at a Time". National Post
  National Post
  The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
  
  , 21 Jan 2006.
• "(Pillow) Fight Club". New York Times, 18 Feb 2006.
• "Shiny Happy People". University of Toronto
  University of Toronto
  The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
  
   Magazine, 1 Sep 2006.
• "Newmindspace Puts Stars in the Sky". Now Magazine
  NOW (magazine)
  Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....
  
  , 16 Nov 2006.