Sarah Simmons: June 2025
Sarah Simmons repurposes text and textile to release the untapped potential of materials and words by challenging their traditionally assigned purposes and roles. Sarah holds a BFA with a concentration in metalsmithing and art education from PennWest, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and an AA in studio art from Montgomery College in Maryland. She is a member of Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Brew House, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, MuseumLab, Annmarie Sculpture Center, as well as with the Anthropology of Motherhood. She never passes up opportunities to share work in public libraries.
Sarah lives in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, where since 2016 she has grown her Bookgarden, a place where discarded books go to celebrate aging, experience unexpected self-transformation, all the while measuring time. She believes that words matter, how we communicate matters, and that literacy is a basic human right.
Collected words, books, and personal writings form the physical and philosophical foundation for my work as a text and textile based conceptual artist. I collect words to combine with abandoned materials. As words are subjected to heightened scrutiny and censorship, I preserve language and present text in new and unexpected ceremonial forms. Our use and throwaway society has boxed our goods and people into anticipated roles with limited lifespans of usefulness. We do not fix or repurpose the items that no longer work the way they were originally intended. We trivialize people who fill undervalued traditional societal functions as well as people who do not fit into accepted roles. My work releases the latent and unexpected possibilities of material and language, while altering perceived worth, adjusting stereotypical storylines, and calling attention to societal issues.
