Laura Nova is an artist, educator and activist who lives and works on New York’s Lower East Side—creating festive, absurdist spectacles that unite generations and diverse communities. The first Public Artist in Residence to be embedded in New York City’s Department for the Aging, Nova brings expertise and empathy to her projects and actions, designing each element to enhance social wellness and decrease social isolation. Working in festivals, public monuments, and the city street, Nova delivers spiels to homebound New Yorkers, organizes an older adult cheerleading squad, and designs crafting kits, guides, and costumes that help nurture emerging activists of all ages. Nova received a BFA and B.A. from Cornell University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently an associate professor and program coordinator of expanded media in the creative arts & technology division at Bloomfield College—a college dedicated to serving the underserved. Her long-term goal is to create a municipal Department of Future Aging and Innovation.
Life-line is a series of 26 augmented full-bodied portraits with audible voices of multigenerational members, reflecting the diversity of the Lower East Side community that memorializes people waiting in line.
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