Jaina Cipriano is a Boston-based experiential artist, filmmaker, and photographer whose immersive work explores themes of emotional transformation, religious gaslighting, and inherited fear.

This year marks an exciting chapter for Jaina Cipriano. She is releasing The Lucky Ones, an archival photo series documenting her teenage years, which will debut in a small installation at the Griffin Museum of Photography and serve as the foundation for a forthcoming photo book. In film, she is launching The Impostor Syndrome, a five-part limited series produced in collaboration with Martian Radio Theatre, while also preparing to crowdfund and direct Actualization, a short film that explores the fear of vomiting and the inheritance of fear. Her feature project, Heaven Can’t Be Better Than This, continues its evolution—now five years in the making, it investigates themes of religious gaslighting and self-possession.

This October, the Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) returns under her leadership, featuring a large-scale immersive opening night event that will lay the foundation for a major rebrand in 2026. Cipriano is also unveiling new public art installations this year, including an interactive sculpture at the Essex Art Fair in July and a light activation in Winchester scheduled to run from late 2025 through early 2026.

Her immersive practice continues to expand with What Are You Afraid Of?, an intimate, audience-centered experience supported by a NEFA Public Art Learning Fund grant and consultation with Odyssey Works. Plans are underway to reimagine the piece as an outdoor nighttime installation later this summer.