Illustrator, animator and filmmaker Karen Aqua (1954–2011) was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976.
Her award-winning films have screened worldwide, at festivals in Europe, Asia, North/South America, New Zealand, and the Middle East. She has received fellowships from American Film Institute, MacDowell, Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), New England Film/Video Fellowship Program, Berkshire Taconic Trust, LEF Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation.
Aqua taught animation at Boston College and Emerson College, and at workshops and residencies around the United States. She served as a juror for film festivals in Japan, Canada, and the US, and presented numerous one-person screenings of her work.
In 2005, a special program of Aqua’s animated films was presented at the Tehran International Animation Festival, Iran.
She directed/animated 22 segments for the acclaimed children’s television program Sesame Street.
Aqua’s film, Twist of Fate, was screened at Telluride Film Festival, Starz Denver Film Festival, Kos Ippokratis International Health Film Festival (Greece), and international animation festivals in Ottawa, Hiroshima, and Annecy (France). It has received awards at Ann Arbor Film Festival, James River Film Festival, and Black Maria Film & Video Festival.
Her final film, Taxonomy, debuted at the ICA/Boston three weeks before her passing in 2011. Karen was notified that she had been named a Fellow in Film & Video by the Massachusetts Cultural Council three days prior to her passing.