Born to Moslem father, Catholic mother, educated in a convent and converted to Buddhism at an early age.. Degrees in English Lit and MSc in Politics, trained as a journalist (till Associate Editor, World News Publications) then switched to the Arts. Ran for a while with Taxi Theatre - offices in London, New York and Rome - before making the bigger leap to Tokyo, where she acted as European consultant for Min-On Culture Organisation - bringing musicians to Japan and dancers back to the UK.

In the mid 80s, Indra switched to full time cultural consultancy to Taplow Court in Berkshire (owned by generous Buddhists, Soka Gakkai International ). In addition to producing an annual arts festival (Taplow Court Festival 1990 - 2000), Indra founded and ran Conflict and Peace Forums . This small think-tank presented regular courses, lectures, and salons on conflict transformation and prevention. In association with international network Transcend (www.transcend.org) founded by the 'father of peace studies' Johan Galtung , Conflict and Peace Forums gave birth to Peace Journalism in the UK - now metamorphed into Reporting the World (www.reportingtheworld.org.uk). Top journalists - from Will Hutton to Maggie O'Kane - took part in wide ranging discussions on alternative forms of conflict reporting

The mid 90s saw the birth of Poiesis - meaning "making or creating, as in a work of art" - a second small think-tank which explored the role of the arts and spirituality in personal and social transformation. In association with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tate Modern, Barbican Arts Centre and NESTA, Indra founded a Power of the Arts programme which presented an annual conference and a number of high profile salons. Working under the wing of internationally renowned musician and lecturer Paul Robertson (www.musicmindspirit.org), Indra also took on a position as executive director of the World Peace Orchestra (http://www.kmh.se:16080/wpo) with young musicians from every country of the Balkans. They were launched at the World Economic Forum in 2002.

In 2001 Poiesis worked with the ICA to produce a series of events examining The 'S' Word' - post-religious spirituality in 21C, which surprised everyone by being a complete sell out (see events one, two and three). Indra continued with the ICA in the post of associate director of talks.

Throughout the 90s, Indra worked sporadically with Pat Kane in a number of different ways. From inviting him to share a stage with Herbie Hancock at the Taplow Court Jazz Festival in 1998, to inviting him to lecture at the Power of the Arts salon in 1999. She also produced a series of events at the ICA centred on the Play Ethic that same year. Early in 2002 they decided to set up shop together as New Integrity, embarking on the project now known as Re-imagining Social Work that same year.

Pat Kane brings to New Integrity two decades of experience, innovation and achievement in the realms of media, technology and performance.

The Play Ethic
Pat's most recent project feeds in directly to New Integrity's agenda - the forthcoming book from Macmillan, entitled The Play Ethic: A Manifesto For a Different Way of Living, out in September 2004. Initially launched in the Observer in October 2000, and developed since into a website and journal. The Play Ethic expresses the idea that play should supersede work as 'our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value'.

The Play Ethic is a crucial element in one of New Integrity's Core Ideas - Engagement. Indeed, one of the earliest linguistic roots of play in English means 'to engage, to exercise oneself' (see Bartleby.com).

Since late 2000, Pat has consulted with and lectured to an impressive range of organisations about the Play Ethic throughout the world, including the UK government's Cabinet Office in London, The International Society for the Performing Arts and the Victoria Schools Innovation Commission in Australia, and the Aula network in Helsinki.

Over the last few years, Pat has worked with Indra Adnan 's Poiesis think-tank on several Play-Ethic related projects, including a lecture series at the ICA, and events at her annual Power of the Arts conference at Tate Modern and Taplow Court.

Ideas consultancy
Pat brings much experience from the think-tank sector in the UK into New Integrity. For two years, between 2001-2003, he served as editor of the International Futures Forum, a global network of thinkers and game-changers from academia to business, based at St.Andrews University in Scotland, and funded initially by BP in Scotland. As a founding member of the IFF, he has used one of their key concepts - the Fear and Love Loops - to explore one of New Integrity's Core Ideas, Ways of Knowing. One of the early seeds of New Integrity came from a joint project between Indra Adnan's Poiesis and the IFF in 2002, entitled 'The Power of the Arts in an Age of Complexity'.

Pat is also an associate member of Demos, the London-based think-tank that has most defined the shape of politics and policy over the last ten years in Britain. He has participated in seminars and lectures for them over the last few years. In his role as social commentator and reviewer, Pat has shaped opinion in newspapers like The Independent, the Guardian and the Sunday Herald (where he was one of its founding editors).

He has also consulted occasionally to the advertising industry, most notably to Bartle Bogle and Hegarty's X-Box campaign for Microsoft. For all these labours, Pat was recently named 'Guru of the Week' by the FT!

Music and the Arts
In the 80's and 90's, Pat was also one half of the jazz-pop group Hue & Cry (performing with James Brown, Ray Charles, Madonna, Simply Red, The Brecker Brothers, among many others), and is still writing, playing and recording today (recent records available here and here). Pat brings an active interest in the 'powers of the arts' to New Integrity, constanly searching for new expressive forms to apply in consultancies, sessions and workshops.

Other Networks
For a list of other networks and websites that Pat Kane considers part of a 'New Integrity' approach, please visit the Ideas Context page on The Play Ethic website, or his daily weblog Play Journal