BIO
Sarah Turner is an artist and educator trained in the Northwest, refined in the Midwest and now based in Massachusetts.
As an educator, working from both the office and the studio, Sarah has worked at North Bennet Street School, Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and the State University of New York at New Paltz. As President at NBSS, Sarah led the School in expanding programs, building enrollment, supporting students, and record fundraising - a thrilling combination of collaboration, hard work, and instinctive vision. As the Dean at Cranbrook, Sarah directed the Academic Programs of the Academy, including a ‘public-lecture-as-variety-show’ series, and a Critical Studies + Humanities residential teaching fellowship, which she established in 2009. She lectures widely, regularly serves as a guest critic, and has organized exhibitions on contemporary applied art in the US and abroad. In 2005, Sarah was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Netherlands to research Dutch contemporary applied art.
In addition to her work in education, Sarah maintains a low-production studio. Her work has been included in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Art and Design, New York, the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Galerie Noel Guymarc’h in Montreal, and The Society of Arts and Craft, Boston.
Sarah has been a volunteer and advisor for a variety of organizations, including the Michigan Fulbright Association, the Furniture Society, Art Jewelry Forum, the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and the International (dis)Organization of Recent Art-Graduates Applying for Teaching And Grants [I(d)RAGTAG].
Born and raised in Wooster, Ohio, Sarah received a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from Smith College and a Certificate in Metalsmithing from the Oregon College of Art & Craft. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art.