Sarah Forbes

Founder and Chief Curator

Raised on a childhood of Antiques Roadshow, my mother and grandmother are lifelong collectors and flea market hunters. Dragged to every estate sale, garage sale or local bazaar listed in the newspaper, these enthusiastic everyday archaeologist-detectives exposed me to the thrill of finding undervalued objects and figuring out their provenance. These early experiences combined with my deep curiosity about the big wide world inspired my graduate studies in Anthropology and my eventual career as a museum curator.

While I never could have predicted it, as a museum professional, a significant amount of my time would be spent fielding inquiries regarding found objects and their value. Because of this, much of my anthropological fieldwork has taken place in storage lockers, garages, basements and attics around the world.

And through dust and cobwebs, during these “house calls” I have discovered some incredible artifacts of our human story. It has been a great honor featuring these salvaged objects across dozens of museum exhibitions, making the preservation of secret collections on the brink of disappearance the sincere highlight of my career. Time and time again, both personally and professionally, I’ve been reminded that what is deemed “junk” by one is treasure to another (even to museums).

Often encountered once an individual passes away — ephemeral, intimate and personally significant items can be undervalued by others— too often finding their way into the trash. Though they are the most valuable storytellers of our humanity, the true socio-cultural-historic value of these items often vanishes with their owner-- simply because their "story" was never officially recorded. It made me realize the history of every day people needs to be preserved right now.

This realization brought up many questions:

Who is protecting sentimentally valuable family heirlooms from ending up in the dumpster? Who is preventing priceless artifacts and pieces of art from ending up for sale for $5 at the local flea market? How does the average person learn, capture and preserve the personal and familial narratives of their prized possessions?

Thinking back to my mother and grandmother, it dawned on me --- many of these items came their way because no one is capturing the valuable information of these every day treasured objects--otherwise they likely wouldn’t have been given away. From this realization, Citizen Curated was born.

Putting theory into practice, through my Citizen Curated services I am excited to make museum level curation available to the public. Whether it’s the preservation of family photos, trinkets saved from childhood or simply the mementos of a life lived passionately, to me, these are the stories and objects that deserve a pedestal in history. I’m committed to supporting the every day person preserve their story.