Sarah Gjertson earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997, and is Professor Emerita of Studio Art in the School of Art & Art History (SAAH) at the University of Denver, where she taught between 2002-2024. She developed and administered the foundational art curriculum, was Director of SAAH from 2012-2015, and taught a variety of Studio Art courses from the beginning to advanced level. She developed interdisciplinary courses like “Unconventional Portrait” and “Open Media Studio” that emphasized conceptual and research methods, and offered upper level seminars such as “Professional Practice” and “Bad Girls, Riot Grrrls and Misbehaving Women”.

In 2019, shortly before leaving SAAH, Sarah spearheaded a new Studio area called “Integrated Practice”, which offered students a means to work conceptually across mediums, and build connections between disciplines and processes. Of many goals, Integrated Practice aimed to support students’ growing self-awareness of their own origins and subjectivity, identify larger themes in their work, connect them through research to other discipline interests, and help prepare them for the broadening landscape available to them as creative practitioners.

A former skydiver and beekeeper, Sarah finds great appreciation of backcountry camping, is fond of growing food and feeding people, supports local and national animal welfare efforts, is a fan of most things analog, and is grateful for her rescue menagerie. Having left an academic career of almost 30 years, Sarah started a small lodging business called Wedal Woods in Northern Wisconsin, where she now lives. Her years of enjoying the wilderness of Colorado informed her desire to share the restorative potential of the woods with others, and she hopes one day the business can evolve to support a small artist residency program.