From Art Foundation to running away to the Circus: Sarah Smith's Creative Journey

Stories and Memories: an interview with Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith's creative journey has taken her from the top floor of the Generator building in Loughborough to the vibrant circus and festival scenes. In this interview, she reflects on her Foundation Art experience in 1994, her subsequent education at Cardiff Art College, and her current roles managing performances at major festivals. Sarah shares how her early art education shaped her thinking and career path, and her vision for what the Generator could become.

Frances Ryan, interviewed by Pasha Kincaid

Q: Sarah, thanks for coming to talk to us at the Generator. Could you tell us about your connection to the Generator building and the old art college on the corner of Frederick Street and Pack Street?

Sarah: I did Foundation Art there in 1994.

Q: What was it like in those days?

Sarah: It was brilliant, really good fun! It was lovely to just be able to focus on art. I had done A-levels in maths, physics, English, and art—I failed some of them, but that was great because it meant I had to go to art college, which was the best deal! It was really nice to just be able to do art and focus on that.

Q: Were you on one particular floor, or did you move across all floors?

Sarah: I remember being on the top floor. My desk was right at the end as you come up the stairs. There were all these wooden boards partitioning the different desks, with a corridor down the middle. My desk was right at the end next to the life models, which was great because I could do my art and then turn around and do some life drawings.

I remember all those big windows. I always feel really connected to the textile industry because my ancestors on both sides are locally from here, and they were all in the textiles industry. So it's really lovely to be in and around those industrial buildings and the big windows. It was great.

Q: What did you go on to study after completing your foundation?

Sarah: After my foundation, I took a year off and worked as a barmaid and waitress. I carried on developing my art and portfolio, and I worked with Martin Bandel as a model. His work was very much about the artist and the female gaze, so I was looking at what difference it makes in portraiture for a female artist. I did lots of drawings of women with very direct eye contact and strength.

Then I went to Cardiff Art College. After the first year there, I specialised in sculpture.

Q: What are your fondest memories of being at the Generator building?

Sarah: I think the joy of driving in with my friend in my little Ford Fiesta. I still lived at home, so it wasn't a big change in my life, but I think it was being taught a different way of thinking. The tutors gave us that freedom to learn and express ourselves in lots of different ways, and the space and time to learn different art techniques.

Q: What was the teaching like? Was it quite strict or open?

Sarah: It seemed quite open, especially after coming from school. Looking back now, having qualified as a coach, I would say it was more of a coaching approach rather than dictating what to do. There were obviously certain things we had to try, but they were developing more of that free thinking that, by the time I got to Cardiff, was very much encouraged.

Q: What have you gone on to do since leaving the Foundation and Cardiff?

Sarah: I got my degree in sculpture in Cardiff. Then, just before finishing, I thought I was going to a party in a warehouse, but it turned out I was going to see a show with NoFit State Circus, which is a big immersive promenade performance. The following year, someone invited me to a circus class that only cost a pound. I thought, "I'd just be sitting watching EastEnders, might as well go." It turned out I was joining a community project for a contemporary circus warehouse show!

I might have disappeared from art college for a little while because I was learning welding at the time. I helped weld this huge heart that swung at the height of the warehouse. I learned stilt walking, fire spinning, and helped build the show, which was another promenade performance.

Their community model had a core performance team of professional performers and crew, and then they invited different community groups from all over Cardiff to create a big immersive show. I was quite hooked on that... and then I had to come back to art college.

Q: So you're the woman that ran away from art school to go to the circus?

Sarah: Yes! But it seemed to make absolute sense, really. It's all the same skills—very much like the way of thinking and growing into community arts, people empowerment, and drawing communities together.

Q: Did your work become quite collaborative then?

Sarah: It did. For my final degree project, I created work that was all hidden between the walls of the gallery. There were no signs, just tiny little holes in the wall—the spaces in between the spaces. I only told my art tutors about one or two holes each, so they each knew about a little hole, but none of them knew about all of them. I told them there were other holes they hadn't found yet, which I'm not sure was true, but they'd been playing with my head for three years!

One installation was a video of me with tights over my head, breathing, and then scissors coming up to the eyes and sealing up the tights. Another had Perspex tubes with lights coming down the sides—one saying "come here" and the other "go away." One had coconut shampoo in a wave going around, and another had hair stuck down like a spider web.

Q: You know about the Generator's transformation plans. What would your vision be for what you'd like to see in the Generator?

Sarah: I think it could play a really important role in different aspects. I've spent 30 years of my career working on community projects and seeing how art can bring people together. We're existing in a world with quite a lot of polarisation, with everyone in their little echo chambers on Facebook and such.

I think spaces like the Generator can play a really important role in drawing bridges between different cultures and different people who think they have nothing to do with each other. It can create greater understanding of community. I feel it's a really important responsibility to have that golden thread through the whole strategy of how arts can bring different people together. People can develop different relationships and understanding of others through arts and community projects.

Having a space that's open is vital. How do we bring more people into that space? How do we build a facilitated space where different people can experience it as a whole community?

The other aspect I'm really excited about is the aerial possibilities. I used to be a trapeze artist and circus trainer, so I spent quite a lot of time in the air. As soon as I walk into a space, I look up, and the Generator is an amazing space for aerial work. In the Midlands, we're very limited on spaces with that kind of height. Theatrically, what you can create in there is really exciting.

Q: Why do you think the Generator is relevant and important in 2025 and going forward?

Sarah: When I moved back to this area, it broke my heart that the building was completely empty. I watched it for ages thinking, "Why is no one doing anything with that? It's such an amazing building with such history." So it was really exciting to see the café open and to remember that big space.

I think it's exciting because of the possibilities of what you can create there—the size, the shape, and the drama of the space. It's always important for community, but we're still overcoming the trauma of isolation from COVID. Having more exciting spaces to draw people together and have meaningful experiences within the arts is vital for wellbeing.

Q: You do a lot of work with wellbeing at festivals, don't you?

Sarah: Yes, one of my jobs is as a venue manager at The Common at the Temple—or "High Priestess" as I think it should be called! I have "Guardians" who have medical or welfare backgrounds, or have reached a certain age where they still want to be at the party but don't necessarily want to party themselves. They have the knowledge to keep people safe in those environments in an understanding, non-judgmental way.

My other job is Outdoor Performance Manager for Boomtown Fair, which is an interactive, immersive theatrical festival. We just won the awards for Best European Festival and Best Northern European Festival. It's like a film set with different districts and a storyline that's been running for 10 years. It's a fantastic community project with loads of professional and volunteer people who run different venues as theatrical performers.

We run a theatrical immersive game where people go on quests throughout the festival, related to the 10-year storyline. I'm in charge of all the performance, balcony and circus performances, and anything that's on fire is my risk assessment responsibility.

One of my favourite projects at the moment is creating huge playground games. We play a huge game of Grandmother's Footsteps, but slightly subverted with the "Great Mother" who is actually someone's 70-year-old dad in the storyline, but he's a cult leader. We've had a 500-person Hokey Cokey, and every year we have a sea battle where festival-goers build cardboard boats and battle it out.

I recently qualified as a coach, and I'm bringing in my background of clowning and finding play. I think it's so important for people to learn to play. I'm also using arts in my coaching practice—having clients draw landscapes of how they're arriving today, or draw how their life is at the moment and how they want it to be. I'm having a year of researching and building that new business up at the moment.

Q: Would you say there's anything that happened during your Foundation course that planted seeds for what you've gone on to do in your future life?

Sarah: Absolutely! Art college teaches you a way of thinking and problem-solving that isn't necessarily linear. It teaches your brain to think in a different way. I think artists have a really important role in society. It's not just about doing art—we're trained to think in resilient, creative, and abstract ways. I think that's one of the most important things that Foundation started giving me—that foundation of building up those skills.

Sarah Smith is a creative professional whose career spans from fine art and sculpture to circus arts, festival management, and wellbeing coaching. Her experience at the Generator building in 1994 was a catylist to her working in the arts and was foundational to her creative thinking and collaborative approach to arts projects.