N NOWACEK

1. Missing Context Long Overdue (in process)
2024
29.5” x 23.5”
Publication

Unlimited edition

I transformed the  academic paper, “Role of Ovarian Hormones in the Modulation of Sleep in Females Across the Adult Lifespan,” by Alana M C Brown and Nicole J Gervais Department of Psychology, University of Toronto—into a poem about how science hasn’t (to date) cared that women suffer sleep problems from puberty to death. When I first read this paper, I was enraged. As soon as this newest piece is printed, I intend to distribute it across New York City in hopes of enraging as many women as possible.

Shown here is the digital file imposed for printing.


2/3:  (Between) Islands
2022-ongoing
Sculpture and Participatory Performance documentation

(Between) Islands explores loneliness and ageism by engaging 18-24-year-olds in community with people ages 65 and up to explore personal challenges through sculpture and movement. Participants, in younger/older pairs, sculpt custom dumbbells inspired by life challenges while exchanging life stories, learn the basics of upper-body strength training, and develop custom excersies for their dumbbells together.

The first version of the program, supported by the Museum of Modern Art’s education department and took place virtually in 2022 due to of Covid restrictions.

The second version of the program was supported by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in partnership with The Pillars Senior Living Community and engaged Pillars residents and MCAD first-year students.

Image 2 shows 2022 New York City participants sharing their dumbbells with one another on Zoom.
Image 3 shows pairs of weights made by 2022 participants.


4/5: Encounter at Farpoint
2022
Participatory Performance

Encounter at Farpoint invited New Yorkers to imagine their future relationship to flooding and water. Participants learned the history of flooding in New York,  engaged in a process to imagine new modes of co-habitating with water in New York City, and inscribed their ideas onto to blank front pages (silkscreened) of the New York Times as future headlines, images and captions. This performance was invited by The Old Stone House in Brooklyn, a historic Brooklyn site and epicenter of recurring flooding in the Gowanus neighborhood. It was also Invited by organizers of the Sandy+10 conference at Columbia in fall 2022, marking and reflecting on Superstorm Sandy and its impacts at policy, neighborhood, and individual levels.

Image 4 shows 2 participants who decided to collaborate on a water future displaying their idea
Image 5 shows another participants’ future


6. Key From the City
2021
Social Sculpture
New York City harbor waters, wood, waterproof canvas

Key From the City was an award offered to 2021 mayoral candidates on behalf of New York City citizens to commemorate their past and future public service to the city. The award is a ceremonial key made of frozen water drawn from local waterways to represent the central role the waterways play in the lifeblood of the city. As the key melts, it suggests the increasing urgency of climate change in New York City, and the fleetingness of power.

This image shows Mayoral Candidate Quanda Francis receiving a Key From the City on the left, and on the right, an a Key From the City melting.


7/8: The Play About the Bridge with Celine Song
2017
Theatrical and Participatory Performance
20:00

Inspired by the research, development and 4-year pursuit of The Bridge, pursuit and design of a temporary floating bridge to reconnect Brooklyn to Governors Island as they once were by a sandbar, The Play About the Bridge (Walking on Water) was a collaborative project between artist Nancy Nowacek and playwright Celine Song. Written by Celine Song, the script portrays the struggle between the artist’s utopian vision and the pragmatics of governmental policy and regulation.

The set design symbolized the The Bridge’s modular platform design, and suggested the nautical map of the New York City Harbor.  The public was invited to sit and read—or perform—the one-act play during daytime gallery hours. The work was performed by actresses Charlotte Arnoux and Allison Minik as a theatrical piece at night and during a daytime performance at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan as part of the Brookfield 2017 Summer series.

Image 7 shows actors Arnoux (left) and Minik (right) performing the work
Image 8 shows two members of the public reading the play to one another.


9. Menopause, An Imperfect Guide with Sasha Davies
Publication
5.5” x 8.5”
2018

If half the world’s population experiences menopause, why do women know so little about it? Made in collaboration with Sasha Davies, Menopause: An Imperfect Guide was intended as introduction to menopause to educate women 20-50 about their adult reprodutive changes. The booklet presents the potential physical, mental emotional impacts of menopause in order to address the lack of women’s health education after puberty, and dispel the confusion, shame, and isolation that can all too often accompany it.
Written by: Sasha Davies, Designed by: Nancy Nowacek, Illustrations by: Kate Bingaman-Burt, Medical advisor: Dr. George Nowacek, Spanish translation: Karla Polo-Garcia


10. M______, The Menopause Project
2018
Social Sculpture

M______ envisioned community infrastructure for adult health and aging. Offering education, practices, and conversations around female health and aging, M________ made space for women and allies to ask questions, be curious, and share experiences.

The project offered multiple access points to ideas and information around health and aging: artist multiples inspired by health and aging by Amy Khoshbin, Chlöe Bass, and Macon Reed, a Menopause library, and 14 free public programs and workshops. Programs and workshops included the science of hormones, powerlifting, and an intergenerational consciousness-raising.

On the left of image 10, the pop-up gift shop installation of the work; and on the right, a image from ‘Menopause: The Personal and Political a presentation and intergenerational discussion facilitated by psychotherapist and LGBTQ+ activist, Liz Margolies. https://www.mpauseproject.com/