Taylor Ann Cohen

Taylor Ann Cohen (she/her/hers) is a 31-year-old artist and public health professional living in New Orleans, Louisiana — an original South Floridian who followed her curiosity all the way to the Gulf Coast in 2013. She earned her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology in 2019, letting science and creativity share the same table as she kept moving forward.

At Tulane University, even while studying a science track, she was required to take a fine arts course — and it turned out to be the spark she didn’t know she needed. Cohen was drawn to glassblowing for its challenging nature and complexity. She started with beginner classes, progressed through intermediate training, then advanced work, and has never looked back. Today, she returns to the studio that taught her, serving as a teaching assistant and introducing new students to glassblowing — always weaving public health, safety, and thoughtful practice into every lesson.

For years, Cohen has worked at the intersection of art and science, including her time at the nonprofit the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, where she led the Dancer Wellness Program and helped launch the organization’s suicide prevention initiative, You Got This. She also advanced through roles there, beginning as a volunteer and later an intern, before stepping into part-time work, then full-time, and eventually leadership. Her work extended to the Louisiana State Health Department, where she analyzed STI data. She remains active in HIV prevention efforts across the state — while continuing to nurture her craft at Tulane, and most importantly, advocating for change.

Cohen is driven by harm reduction and by a simple belief: everyone deserves comprehensive, compassionate, preventative healthcare. She also believes art is for everyone — not only professional artists — and that creativity can be a pathway to healing and community-building. Her materials range widely across clay, glass, wood, resin, macramé, and photography, and she especially enjoys laser etching and laser cutting on a variety of surfaces.

Taylor’s favorite methods of working with hot glass are casting and kiln-work. She uses recycled bottle glass or glass scraps almost exclusively, adding an eco-friendly component to her pieces. She identifies as polyamorous, queer, and Jewish, and credits her support system of loved ones for her successes. She also honors those who have passed but shaped her into the person she is today: her best friend, Michael Nader; her father, Ira David Cohen; and her dog, Woody.

The collaboration between DanceSafe and the Shulgin Foundation is ideal for someone like her — someone passionate about glass, science, ethical nonprofit work, live music, festival culture, and reducing stigma.