Sarah Abiya is a social practice artist, designer and researcher who asks:
In the midst of social, environmental, and institutional collapse, how might we design ways to expand our individual and collective imaginations toward better ways of being—and better ways of being together?
Sarah Abiya leverages art and design to invite the public into a greater understanding of their agency to build, shape and change culture through designed participatory experiences.
Sarah designs workshops, installations, artifacts and performances which explore how we might live differently and better together. Her work provokes reflection, invites agency, and nurtures imagination. She weaves together ancient technologies: ritual, movement, social psychology, and embodied listening with modern ones: design research methods, computer modeling and data visualization into experiences that spark wonder, connection, awe and action.
Sarah studied Geography at Macalester College, Landscape Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, and Transdisciplinary Design for Social Change at Parsons School of Design. She’s lead design research projects with the Gates Foundation, and the United Nations across the Americas, West Africa and South East Asia.
Sarah is the founder of Soluma, a ritual design studio.