Sarah joined New Urban Arts as Program Director in October 2005. Since her first Lisa Frank diary, Sarah has identified as a writer, but her passion for the arts and her impulse for creative living extend beyond the written word. As New Urban Arts’ Program Director, Sarah has developed many new initiatives, including the Summer Art Inquiry program, the annual Art Inquiry program resource guide series, the Arts Mentoring Fellowship, the Institute of Other Significant Pursuits, the All Night Art Lock-In, the annual year-end Art Party, the Untitlement Project, a summer writing program exploring gender and relationships, and the Studio Team Advisory Board, a youth leadership program. Under her direction, New Urban Arts has achieved record youth and artist participation in its programs as well as record attendance at its public programs and exhibitions.
Prior to coming to New Urban Arts, Sarah worked for Young Chicago Authors (www.youngchicagoauthors.org), a nationally recognized community based arts organization for young writers in Chicago. She developed and supported many projects including a youth advisory council and managing volunteers for Louder Than A Bomb, a week-long poetry slam showcasing 500 youth poets currently featured in an award winning documentary film (www.louderthanabombfilm.com/).
As a recipient of the Arts in Youth and Community Development Fellowship, she completed coursework for her Masters in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2005. Her thesis study explored organizational transition in community-based youth arts organizations. She holds a B.A. in English from Portland State University with a focus on grantwriting and gender studies. As an educator and youth advocate, Sarah works to develop supportive environments that engage youth in creative inquiry and personal development. She lives in Providence with her husband, a teaching musician, and two year old son, Grayson.