Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara (Babs) Colaciello.
Hi Babs, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My career has always lived at the intersection of art, communication, and human connection. I am an artist, creative strategist, entrepreneur, actor, storyteller, and educator, and I’ve never believed those practices needed to exist in separate compartments.
I began my career working for Andy Warhol, the Pope of Pop, as Advertising Director of his magazine Interview at the Factory in New York, from 1977 to 1983. It was an extraordinary launching pad, placing me inside one of the most culturally influential creative spaces of its era, surrounded by the artists and cultural icons who helped define it.
When I moved to Jacksonville in 1993, my work began to take root in a new community. I founded Inter-Act, an acting program centered on improvisation, and began hosting Soirees in my home that brought artists and audiences together. In 2005, I became Education and Outreach Director at Players by the Sea, where I spent nine years working across theater, education, and community engagement.
Ten years ago, that evolution became BABS’LAB, founded with a simple vision: to create an artistic hub, a third space where people could gather, tell stories, take creative risks, and elevate the art of communication through storytelling, rooted in improvisation and shared human experience. BABS’LAB has become my living canvas, inviting people to play, create, connect, and find their own voice.
That work led to another important chapter in my Jacksonville story. I became Artistic Director of the Florida Theatre’s Untold Stories, a personal storytelling series whose workshops were held at BABS’LAB before the stories moved to the Florida Theatre stage. The series eventually became a podcast on WJCT, extending those Jacksonville voices into the wider community.
As my work has evolved, so has my focus on communication. As a strategic communications coach, I work with professionals across industries, helping them clarify their message, strengthen their decision-making, and communicate with confidence and impact. My approach draws from improvisation, storytelling, acting, and decades of working with people in very different environments.
My newest venture, The Jax Film Salon, extends that same spirit into independent cinema, bringing Jacksonville filmmakers and audiences together to experience, discuss, and celebrate their work.
Ten years into BABS’LAB, I see the work continuing to expand beyond a single space or discipline. I’m interested in building an enterprise at the intersection of the arts, communication, coaching, and community, while continuing to create places where people can discover what they have to say and what they are capable of doing.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In terms of building BABS’LAB, momentum was actually on my side. I had followers before I opened the doors, I raised $13,000 when we launched, and I raised another $13,000 for our tenth anniversary. The real challenge isn’t starting; it’s sustaining.
Delivering consistent quality, staying aware of what the times need, and keeping people engaged year after year is the harder work. It requires continually asking what my community needs, including what it doesn’t yet know it needs. Most people in Jacksonville have no idea we have award-winning filmmakers right here. That realization was part of what led me to create The Jax Film Salon.
I’ve also had to learn how to keep moving through my own difficult circumstances. I’ve been through open-heart surgery, a prolonged hospitalization with sepsis, and more recently a car accident. Those experiences have tested me, but they have also reinforced something I already believed: humans have a tremendous capacity to move through obstacles and beyond them. I practice what I teach. I don’t identify with the trauma; I use it.
And I think that’s especially important right now. The world can feel overwhelming, which makes it even more important to create joyful, connected experiences where people can remember what it feels like to be human together. For me, that’s not a luxury. It’s necessary.
My real challenge, then, isn’t simply overcoming obstacles. It’s staying connected to my own joy and continuing to do the work through them. Joseph Campbell described it beautifully: “Joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.” That’s my mantra, and it’s very much what BABS’LAB is built on.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As Founder and Artistic Director of BABS’LAB, I build platforms for people’s voices. I create the conditions for people to experiment, take creative risks, and discover what they have to say. BABS’LAB is rooted in storytelling, improvisation, acting, and the art of communication.
I’m a narrative and acting coach, specializing in improvisation as a way to develop intuition. I use it to help people get out of their heads, trust themselves, listen more deeply, and communicate with greater clarity and impact. I create conditions for unlearning, helping people let go of habits and expectations that can get in the way of discovering how they actually think, communicate, and show up. Increasingly, that work extends beyond actors and storytellers to professionals and leaders.
As a woman-owned creative business, I’m especially proud of what has been built through relationships. For ten years, I’ve quietly built BABS’LAB one relationship at a time, creating a place people trust. When I recently asked the community to help the Lab grow for its tenth anniversary, the response came almost immediately. My greatest asset isn’t the space or the equipment. It’s the trust I’ve built over a decade.
There’s something powerful about having that trust affirmed. It tells me that what I’m offering is not only reaching people, but that they value it enough to help sustain it.
It’s also important to me that I continue producing my own work. I believe I’m a better teacher because I continue to challenge myself as an artist. I can’t ask people to take creative risks if I’m not willing to take them myself. Staying in the work keeps me curious and keeps me growing.
What sets me apart is the breadth of experience I bring to all of this. I trained as an actress in college and earned my Actors’ Equity card. I began my career in sales, then worked at Andy Warhol’s Interview while continuing my studies. I moved through advertising, acting, directing, theater education, storytelling, coaching, and entrepreneurship before building BABS’LAB.
I’m now in my eighth decade, and I see that experience as an asset. I’ve had decades to watch people, culture, communication, and human behavior change. I’ve learned to recognize patterns, trust my instincts, and stay curious. I have the experience to know what I know, but I’m still willing to not know what comes next.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
REVEAL American investigative reporting radio show and podcast hosted by Al Letson ( from Jacksonville)
Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American substack
Masterclass – online education subscription platform
“Myth of Freedom” by Chögyam Trungpa
“How to Write an Autobiographical Novel” by Alexander Chee
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.barbaracolaciello.com
- Instagram: @babslabatcork
- Facebook: Barbara Colaciello
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaracolaciello
Image Credits
1. Babs by Matteo Colaciello 2. by Toni Smailagic 3 Babs by Matteo 4. Improv class with my camera.
