Sarah Watson’s Journey to Curation  

Originally from a suburb of Philadelphia, Sarah became interested in the art world by way of film. In high school, Sarah made documentary films about punk rock shows—some of which she organized. This hobby, coupled with some acting gigs in commercials, started her on the path of studying film at Syracuse University. Sarah took an art photography class as an elective and “was really drawn to the narrative possibilities of photography,” she recalls. She ended up switching majors to art photography. During college Sarah also worked as a work-study student at the Syracuse University Art Museum, followed by a curatorial internship at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, experiences that she “feels confident that as a first-generation college student, were transformative in her professional development.” After Syracuse, Sarah went to New York City and worked in restaurants for a couple years before realizing she enjoyed writing about art more than making it, and that what she really wanted to do was be a curator.    

Sarah studied art history at Hunter College at the City University of New York (CUNY). She chose Hunter College’s unique program because the art history graduate students learn alongside the MFA students. While she was studying, Sarah landed an internship with MacAndrews & Forbes, Inc., where she gained experience working with a private art collection. The internship developed into a full-time position at MacAndrews & Forbes, as assistant curator for the Ronald O. Perelman Collection, where Sarah worked for five years. Next Sarah transitioned her career into higher education, taking a curator role at Hunter College’s art galleries, where she stayed for 11 years and advanced to the position of chief curator and director of exhibitions, where she oversaw a network of four galleries In her tenure at HCAG, she grew the galleries into active hubs for community exchange, student engagement, and artistic experimentation—producing critically acclaimed exhibitions, programs, and publications. HCAG’s programming frequently received coverage in the New York Times, Art in America, and Hyperallergic, among other outlets. 

Sarah counts working with BFA students among the highlights of her time at Hunter College where she helped them mount their BFA Degree Show. “It is very fulfilling to help students go through the process of thinking about their work for an audience, often for one of the first times, and how that requires editing and thinking about a viewer in the physical space engaging with their work.” Also at Hunter College, Sarah taught graduate curatorial methods and curatorial practicum students as an adjunct professor.   

Curation + Public Engagement  

Thinking about some of her favorite aspects of curation, Sarah points to public engagement. “Art is an amazing catalyst to encourage conversation and encourage debate and discourse; it gives an invitation to think about things through the different individualized perspectives of artists that are being shown,” she says. She thinks of a gallery as “being a safer space for folks to be able to engage in difficult conversations.” For these reasons and others, Sarah is excited to curate on the Auraria campus, where the Emmanuel Art Gallery is in a high-traffic area and represents an integral part of the tri-institutional campus community.   

As part of her commitment to public higher education, Sarah felt a responsibility to learn more about public policy and administration and in 2020, while working full-time leading the Hunter College Art Galleries, she enrolled in CUNY SLU’s MA Urban Studies program, graduating in 2023. Joining CUNY SLU as Director of the Murphy Institute, she has had the opportunity to exercise the principles she learned in her professional role there as well. SLU is a newer college (established in 2018), comprised of commuter students, and is in the process of building a labor gallery in its midtown Manhattan location.   

Part of Sarah’s role included securing buy-in with the college community and institutional partners for the gallery. The task had her thinking about “what art and culture mean to different people, what makes them excited about visual materials and art making and listening.” Sarah organized pop-up exhibitions highlighting artists who have created works around the labor movement. To cultivate greater civic engagement while highlighting the work of SLU, Sarah directed the development of public engagement content including 25 public programs a year, the podcast Reinventing Solidarity, a national journal titled New Labor Forum, and a monthly TV show titled City Works!  

Since her experience with the CUNY colleges have been with commuter students learning and congregating in vertical buildings, Sarah is looking forward to experiencing the energy that comes from a campus and working closely with students again. While Denver’s arts community is smaller than New York City’s, she says that difference in scale is appealing to her and she’s eager to visit the Denver metro area’s galleries and museums and meet the people and institutions that make up the community. That, and spending time with her sister who also works at CU Denver and going on hikes with her dogs.   

Sarah Watson’s Short Biography