A woman stands with green trees behind her, looking straight at the camera. She has shoulder length curly hair, and is wearing dark rimmed glasses. She has white skin and has pale red lipstick on. She wears a black top and black leather jacket. She looks like she's in her late thirties.

Sarah Coulson – Board Member.

I am Curator / Publications Lead at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, working across all aspects of exhibition development and realisation, including the creative production of our new Bloomberg Connects digital App. Design and print are my other areas of specialisation and I work closely with artists to create YSP’s publications. I also have an interest in poetry, recently working with Simon Armitage and Jackie Kay on commissioned poetry collections. Project management is an important part of my role and I have managed the delivery of significant off-site projects, including Ursula von Rydingsvard at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

Outside my everyday work, I was a school governor for 8 years, with a special interest in how the arts are embedded in learning.

 

 

What expertise do you bring to the board?

The primary skills I bring to the IOU board are around my work in supporting artists to realise projects, and in particular my hands-on experience of the complexities of contemporary sculpture in the open air and site-specificity for over 20 years.

What excites you about IOU – why are you a board member?

I grew up in Halifax and have always had a passion for the arts, accessibility and presenting work in non-traditional spaces, so being a part of IOU is a real pleasure for me. IOU excites me because it has always been innovative and collaborative in its approach, working with diverse artists across artforms, abounding with creativity and pushing boundaries.

Tell us about a cultural experience, past or present that has inspired you the most.

I recently saw the Isamu Noguchi exhibition at the Barbican. We had an exhibition of his work at YSP back in 2008, so it was wonderful to see some familiar works as well as many I don’t know so well. Noguchi embraced art as something that is part of every aspect of our lives, not something that is separate or exclusive. He made incredible sculptures and was a supremely talented carver, yet he also designed playgrounds, lighting, furniture, theatre sets and costumes, and had a keen sense of the social role and relevance of art.