The Artful Life Questionnaire: Sara Nash

What we know for sure: We all have a story, and engaging with the arts helps all of us to tell our own stories on our own terms. We also know that there are ways to engage with the arts other than in formal cultural venues, and that sometimes it is more about the process of art making than it is about the end product. We also know that living an artful life, which is to say, living a life in which the arts and arts engagement are a priority means different things to different people based on their own interests, their communities, and many other factors, including equitable access. The Artful Life Questionnaire celebrates the diversity of ways we can make the arts a part of our lives, and, hopefully, inspires and encourages us to live our own unique versions of an artful life. In today’s edition of the questionnaire, we’re speaking with NEA Dance Director Sara Nash.

NEA: Please introduce yourself.

SARA NASH: Hi, I’m Sara Nash. I was born and raised in Virginia Beach, so my first love is the ocean. I also spent a lot of time in a tiny town in North Carolina with my grandparents growing up, and I’m named after my grandmother. She was what people described as ‘a real character,’ and we had all kinds of adventures created out of the ordinary bits of life. She was a terrific storyteller, along with my great aunt Margaret, which left a big impression on me, and I was always encouraged to be an imaginative, creative kid by the adults in my life. 

At four I followed my sister into taking dance classes and loved them immediately. I also loved painting, drawing, reading voraciously, and theater, which my parents supported in as many ways as they could. When I was 16, my high school theater department was selected to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so I got to perform there and see as many shows as I possibly could. This trip also cemented my love for travel. After graduating from a liberal arts college with a degree in Theater & Dance, I moved to London in September 2001. It was a challenging time to work abroad, and after a short stint working at an advertising agency and then a bookstore, I got a temp job working at the British Council in a position that helped arrange tours for UK dance and theater companies to other countries, and this tapped into so many of my strengths and passions- art, international exchange, and program management.

From there, I worked at a contemporary dance festival in Prague, and then at Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts) in New York, where I worked on international exchange programs and as a producer. I’ve also lived in Baltimore and Boston, where I ran the National Dance Project at New England Foundation for the Arts before moving to the DC area six years ago to be the Dance Director at the NEA. 

I still have a deep love for travel, and as I’ve gotten older, crave time in nature in a way I didn’t when I was in my 20’s and 30’s. I’m also disabled, so figuring out how to balance all the things I love to do with work and rest is a constant work-in-progress. 

NEA: Do you have a current art practice or a way of regularly engaging with the arts?

NASH: In addition to seeing dance performances, it’s always a treat to see theater and music shows. I really love visual art, and there are several visual artists whose work and process I love to follow and support.

NEA: What are five words that come to mind when you think about the idea of living an artful life?

NASH: Intention, wonder, creativity, empathy, generosity.

NEA: Pick just one of those words and expand on how you see it as part of living an artful life.

NASH: I always have a hard time choosing just one, but I’ll go with intention, or intentionality. I think the care that we take in our daily lives- where we put our attention, whether it’s with the people we spend our energy on, what we take in, what we surround ourselves with, and the questions we ask about our world and our place in it are all part of living an artful life. 

NEA: What are some of the ways that your community tells its story through the arts or through creative expression? 

NASH: Takoma Park is such a creative community—from maker collectives such as Takoma Collective, which hosts events throughout the year, to live music venues like Takoma Station and arts organizations like Dance Exchange and Rhizome. There is so much to take part in before you even get on the metro and head into D.C. I love it.  

NEA: How do you think that living an artful life can improve the well-being of your community?

NASH: People need places to gather and to be able to explore and express themselves, to feel that they belong—both in person and in virtual spaces for communities that aren’t based on a physical location. When we engage in the arts, whether it’s at a theater, a library, or in our own homes on zoom, I think we feel more connected to the world around us, and hopefully also to one another. 

NEA: Is there a particular place in your neighborhood that is a creative touchstone for you?

NASH: I love my neighborhood so much! Two places that I love to go are People’s Book, an independent bookstore that opened a little over a year ago. They really feel like a community hub; they host book clubs, author events, and so much more, and it’s a place I gravitate to because it feels good to be there. I also love Indigro, which is a plant store, but so much more. They host a bunch of plant workshops where you can make your own terrarium or propagation station, so it’s really a place that brings creativity and nature together at the same time. 

NEA: You’re known for dance. Is there a form of creative expression that's really important to you that we don't know about?

NASH: My physical environment has always been really important to me. Even as a kid, I would rearrange my room every so often to better suit what I needed, so I really enjoy interior design. I’m obsessed with House and Garden UK and looking at paint colors. I’m fascinated by how the feeling of a room can be completely transformed by what you put in it and the color of the walls and ceiling. I’d love to study color theory someday, and I love to have a project in mind even if I won’t be able to make it happen for a long time.

NEA: Can you share an arts experience or moment of arts engagement that has had an identifiable impact on your life?

NASH: It’s so difficult to pick just one, because the arts have been so formative for me all my life. I remember seeing a production of Bye Bye Birdie at the Little Theater of Virginia Beach when I was a kid, singing along at concerts, and taking dance classes and performing myself. I felt so alive; the arts gave me access to a much larger world than I knew existed and that I wanted to experience as much as I could. As an adult, what stands out to me the most is not necessarily one moment or one performance, but all of the dance that I got to see collectively in my early 20s. I was profoundly lucky to be able to learn from so many artists from the U.S. and around the world, from Serbia to Japan and Argentina to Kenya. I would not be the person I am without those experiences. The arts really are a vital and fundamental part of being human, no matter where in the world you are.