Meet the Woman Connecting Seattle Artists to the Spaces They Belong In

Seattle Business Magazine Profiled Seattle Art Source Founder Sarah Hurt — and We’re Still Proud of Every Word

What does it take to build a business that’s good for artists, good for designers, and good for a city? If you ask Sarah Hurt, it starts with a simple question: where does the unsold art go?

Before founding Seattle Art Source, Sarah was curating three-month-long art shows in the International District. At the end of every show, she’d ask artists what happened to the pieces that didn’t sell. The answer was always the same — back to the studio, into a closet. She knew there had to be a better way. So she started talking to interior designers, learned that placing local art was something they wanted to do but struggled to make happen, and decided to be the person who made it easier. Seattle Art Source was born from that gap — and from a deeply held belief that keeping artists in Seattle is worth fighting for.

Seattle Business Magazine sat down with Sarah for their Executive Profiles series, and the conversation covered everything from the nuts and bolts of the business (artists keep 60 percent; abstracts and anything with blue sell fastest; red is surprisingly divisive) to the philosophy behind it all. Sarah’s clients tend to be people in their 30s and 40s who are ready to move beyond mass-produced prints — people who want their walls to mean something. Her job is to listen closely enough to know what they actually want, even when they don’t quite know how to say it yet.

But perhaps the line that stuck with us most comes right at the end of the interview. Asked to finish the sentence “Sarah Hurt is…” she answered: “building something long term. I want my children to inherit a city that still has artists living in it.” That’s not a business mission statement — it’s a love letter to Seattle. And it’s exactly why we do what we do.

Read the full profile in Seattle Business Magazine here.