Sara L. Smith
About Sara
Sara L. Smith is a fine artist, public art inclusivity activist, mother, and community arts advocate, working with mixed media, paint, reclaimed materials and fiber to address issues of environmental impact in wilderness, challenge social systems and inequity, and expand rural cultural infrastructure. Her public work is strongly focused on creating universal access to the arts through participatory practices.
I am a lifelong artist, and a long time, passionate community arts activist, so have always leaned towards using my art and my life to find ways to make the world a better place. Several years ago I helped incubate the organization Tahoe Public Art. This included encouraging adoption by the local business association and connection to local individuals who became visible champions of the effort. This was followed by organizing and co-curating a multi-artist site specific temporary exhibit called “Detours” to publicly launch the organization, and culminated in the initial goal of funding and installing large scale permanent sculptures on Tahoe’s North Shore. TPA went on to collaborate with multiple regional entities, to achieve many more permanent and temporary public art installations around the lake and region, crossing state and county boundaries to unify the area around the central pillar of art. I am currently the Co-Chair of the Truckee Arts Alliance and assisted in securing and establishing Truckee’s Cultural District, one of fourteen pilot districts in the California Cultural District Program.
As an artist, in addition to my studio work I have produced multiple public art projects including the large wood, steel and painted donor recognition mural installed in the Truckee Aquatic Center (in collaboration with Mountain Forge), a large scale multi-theme interpretive mural adorning the Incline Village Library and spanning well over 100 feet in length, and many, many participatory community based projects and installations, which have been focused on creating greater inclusivity in public art. My work can be found in private collections and public spaces across the US, from California to New York to Florida. While still in college I was a awarded a four month international art and teaching fellowship, an experience that served to expand my understanding of the world’s diverse as well as universal experiences around art and art making, and steered my journey towards my abiding interest in art as a unifying language and source of individual and community connection.
Learn more about Sara here.
