We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Lawrence and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, where are you from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?

I’m from midtown Atlanta, right near Piedmont Park. I was privileged to grow up in an area that was central to mostly everything I wanted to do as a kid and as a teenager.

This was crucial to me; my parents rarely had to drive me to anything I wanted to do, I could simply walk or hop on a bike and get just about anywhere (I even biked to Athens in high school, and didn’t tell my mom until much, much later. ). Even then, I was keenly aware that this wasn’t something a lot of people had access to – folks in the suburbs and areas that have been, quite frankly, hollowed out by the unstoppable force of car-first infrastructure often have no other way to get around.

So, I’ve loved this city since I first started exploring it but it also impacts my personality and my work. My favorite things to create and topics to talk about usually revolve around building genuine community, bringing people together, and letting them experience a place with full joy and context.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have been a full-time freelance designer for almost 10 years, and I wear that as a badge of honor – this work is tough, really tough, and it sometimes feels tough to juggle a lifestyle with no safety net (my animals provide a lot of moral support). The upside is I get to fully control the work I do, what I work on, and who I work with. I have gotten to lead, assist, or touch some really fantastic projects throughout my career so far and I am constantly amazed to find out who I’ll get to work with next.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, let’s start with picking them up at the airport:

• I’d stop by JPresso to grab a coffee and hang out until they let me know that their flight has landed

• We’d come back to my house, drop their bags, and walk over to Boggs Social & Supply in West End and try to snag one of the outdoor cabanas + a couple Cultured South kombuchas if it’s nice out: if it’s not too hot, a walk on the Westside Beltline trail is always nice because there’s a lot of really beautiful outdoor art and it’s considerably less crowded than the Eastside trail.

* If it was their birthday, I’d take them to Bocca Lupo for a delicious pasta dinner and then walk over to Jeni’s to grab a birthday scoop of ice cream (it’s free on your birthday!! and so is the aquarium!)

• The next day, we’d definitely visit Buford Highway – I love the Goodwill in the Buford Crossing shopping center, so we’d grab Banh Mis at Lee’s Bakery, thrift for a bit, and then explore the murals painted a few years ago for the Living Walls + We Love BuHi conference. For dinner, I’d get us dinner at Shoya Izakaya in Doraville (maybe wander around H Mart if the wait is long), and then end the night at Karaoke Melody 2.

• Is it the weekend? I swear by the wine classes taught at the Oenophile Institute in Smyrna – they’re usually early mid-day, like 1 or 2 pm, so we’d learn about Pinot Noirs and then go kayaking in the afternoon. I like to put in at Powers Island and take out at Paces Mill, so that’s about a 2-hour float. We’d be back in plenty of time for dusk, and then grab Heirloom BBQ near Powers Island. I also became a Costco member this year so if there’s time, we’d go to the Cumberland Mall Costco and accidentally buy 10 jugs of almond milk

• On Sunday, we’d head back to Boggs for the ultra-special Ria’s Baby Bird popup. It’s truly West End’s greatest kept secret: a Ria’s Bluebird popup on the other side of town, with a way shorter wait! For dinner, we’d probably hang at home and cook dinner to eat in my backyard.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe a lot of my path today to the Awesome Foundation, a community of chapters that award micro-grants to “awesome” projects in their community. In 2013, I was working on my senior thesis project around the concept of collaborative memory mapping and realized, as a college student, I wasn’t able to afford to do the project I really wanted to.

I applied to the Open Web chapter, went through their interview process, and was astounded to receive a $1000 microgrant! This fundamentally changed several things for me:
• I was able to complete my project, which I then gave a TEDx talk on the following year and helped me establish a foothold in collaborative public art, something I still do today.
• It provided validation I didn’t realize I was so desperately seeking. This panel of trustees met me, saw a scattered college student with a big idea, and took a chance on me. I was so moved by this gift that I set up my own micro-grant a few years ago when I was finally able to afford to do so. It reopens soon: https://www.sarahclawrence.com/grant/

Website: www.sarahclawrence.com

Instagram: @sarahclawrence

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahclawrence/

Twitter: @sarahclawrence

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