Following a 10-year publishing career in London, Sarah joined Manchester International Festival (MIF) in 2011 and currently works as their Engagement Manager. Passionate about community-led design, she produces cross art form participatory commissions that challenge, inspire and develop the communities of Greater Manchester.
Previous projects have included Punchdrunk’s first commission for young people The Crash of the Elysium; What is the City but the People? in which Manchester residents took to a 100-metre-long catwalk through Piccadilly Gardens, creating a unique self-portrait of the city; and Utopolis Manchester, a site-specific work with Rimini Protokoll that used sound and voice to transform people’s view of the city. Since 2017 she has been working with Underworld and Manchester residents (with lived experience of homelessness) on Manchester Street Poem, a growing collection of stories highlighting the voices of the city’s marginalised communities.