this is nora gomez-strauss.
Director of Digital Strategies, Public Art Fund | Queens, NY
Nora Gomez-Strauss is an arts administrator born and raised in Queens, NY. For the past eight years, she has been at the Public Art Fund, where she is the Director of Digital Strategies. She currently lives in her native borough with her husband and two children where they can be found going for long walks, looking at art, listening to records, and escaping to the beach.
nora's daily routine:
"I usually get up at 6:15 am (late compared to my pre-COVID 5:30 am alarm!) to do 15 minutes of yoga and get myself together before my two kids, Santiago, age 6, and Marisol, age 2, wake up. After breakfast, we take a morning walk and then dive into the day. Santi recently finished the school year (remote the last few months) so not having to be an elementary school teacher in addition to everything else is a bit a break. The day is a blur of sitting at the laptop, video calls, posting and engaging on Public Art Fund’s social media, making meals and snacks, finding ways for the kids to be entertained, taking breaks from work to read or paint with them, and coordinating my own meetings with my husband’s meetings. Sometimes we end the workday with a dance party. After dinner, bath times, and bedtimes, my husband and I attempt to spend time with each other, usually watching MSNBC or Netflix, and at some point, one of us falls asleep. The next morning we start all over again!”
on getting started in her career:
"Growing up in NYC with art-loving parents, I spent a lot of time exploring museums and galleries and was lucky enough to be admitted to LaGuardia High School aka the “Fame” school, where I knew I wanted to pursue art as a career. Not knowing what kind of careers were out there, I studied art education and photography at SUNY New Paltz thinking I would become an art teacher. During my senior year, I began to research what other art-related careers were out there, and I saw that every job, even seemingly entry-level, required years of experience or an advanced degree. I then went to Pratt Institute for a Master’s in Arts & Cultural Management, which was my “in” into the art world. While I’m thankful for the opportunities and contacts my time there gave me, over a decade later, I am still paying for the “in” in the version of student loans. I am so thankful that in those years I had people like Laurie Cumbo (now New York City Council Majority Leader), who gave me an internship at the Museum of African Diasporan Art, which she founded, and Tom Finkelpearl former Queens Museum Director and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, who hired me for my first real museum job at the Queens Museum, to guide me and give me those initial chances early on in my career. I have been at Public Art Fund for almost nine years now, and it’s still an honor for this first-generation American gal from Queens to be the one sharing PAF with the digital world.”
nora’s self-care routine:
“Self-care for any mom is hard, and it’s much harder the past few months! I do slather my body and face in coconut oil every night and I exfoliate almost every day. My mom ingrained in me an appreciation of my skin and I try my best to take care of it. I recently stopped straightening my hair, so I now have an extended hair care regime. My biggest self-care is what I call “going to the spa,” which means I take a glass of wine into the shower and stay in a few extra minutes. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it feels like a mini-vacation.”
