Sarah Cathers
Sarah Cathers is the Director of Public Life at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco where she develops the organizational focus on radical hospitality; participation rich public spaces; deep and generative relationships with community; and a culture of invitation. Making sure that people, aka ‘the public’, are at the center of everything we do at YBCA, Sarah works alongside other departments to lead projects out of traditional roadblocks and help connect the work we all do in a more holistic manner.
She has 24 years of experience in arts leadership, curation and operations, including producing 7 years of the renowned SFFilm Festival and 9 years at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. She has performed in and produced stage and film works for SFMOMA and Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, designed costumes for independent short films and music videos and was an internationally touring performance artist. She has served on the Board of The Lab, one of San Francisco’s most beloved experimental performance spaces and managed a 15-artist gallery and studio space in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio.