Sculptural art
Site-specific and integrated art
Community engagement and social justice
Pittsburgh Creative Corps Artist Directory
Sarah Simmons
Primary Discipline
Artistic Practice
Assemblage, including found objects, multimedia
Textile/fabric/weaving
Bedtime Stories Volume 3, 2023, discarded books, salvaged posts, wood, steel, 56″ x 48″ x 64.” Displayed as part of “Unearthed: Ecoart in the Landscape” at Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens.
In Your Words, 2023, netting, acrylic medium, pieces of Bookgarden books, chair, Dictionary of Shared Words, 8′ x 8′ x 10.’ Visitors are invited to sit in the chair and add a word of their choosing to the Dictionary of Shared Words.
Sit With Your Words, 2017, 2021, church pew, dictionary, Dictionary of Shared Words, 72″ 24″ x 41.” Created as a site specific work for Corners of Thought at Sweetwater Center for the Arts.
Game, 2024, polybag political signs, basketball rim, latex, thread, 48″ x 48″ x 120.”
The Bookgarden, ongoing, discarded books, wood, plants, bookbeds, approx. 800 sq/ft.
About the Artist
Sarah Simmons is a fiber and text based conceptual artist. She holds a BFA with a concentration in metalsmithing and art education from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and an AA from Montgomery College in Maryland.
Sarah lives in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, where since 2016 she has grown her Bookgarden, a place where discarded books go to celebrate aging and experience unexpected self-transformation. She believes that words matter, and that literacy is a basic human right.
Collected words, books, and personal writings form the physical and philosophical foundation for my work as a text based conceptual artist. I collect and reuse abandoned materials to combine with carefully chosen language. My work releases the latent and unexpected possibilities of material and language, while altering perceived worth, adjusting stereotypical storylines, and calling attention to societal issues.
Photo courtesy of the artist
Web
Provides Fabrication Services to Other Artists
No
Teaching Artist
No
Joined the Directory
October 2025
Related
PROJECT
Pittsburgh Creative Corps
Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.
“My work engages with stories and language through the physical use of text and interaction with others. A routine part of my practice involves collecting words or stories from friends and strangers and incorporating them into sculpture.”
Sarah Simmons
Contact the Artist
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Related
PROJECT
Pittsburgh Creative Corps
Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.
