Meet Sara Anderson | Co-Founder + Serial Optimist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Anderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, how does your business help the community?
Everything we do is about building social capital. Which is just a fancy way of saying we help people find each other and feel like they belong somewhere.

At CONTEXT (findcontext.co), we believe belonging has to come before participation. You can’t ask people to show up if they don’t feel like there’s a place for them. So whether we’re producing events, launching a new program, or supporting another organization’s vision, the throughline is always the same: create the conditions for real connection.

We’ve seen what that looks like in practice. Through ARx, the Artist + Researcher Exhibition (artistresearcher.com), we’re pairing artists with researchers to do something pretty powerful: use art as a translator. There’s incredible work happening in labs and institutions right here in Phoenix, but research can be hard to access if you’re not already inside that world. ARx bridges that gap, giving local researchers a creative collaborator and giving the rest of us a way in, so complex ideas land not just in the mind but in the gut. Through Bike to Wherever (btwphx.com), we’re making cycling more accessible across the Valley, so more people can see Phoenix from a bike seat and find their people out on the road. And through cut + paste phx, we’ve been bringing people together around a table with scissors and magazines since 2015, no experience required, no pressure, just making something with your hands next to a stranger who might become a friend.

We also spend a lot of time supporting other organizations doing meaningful work in the city, from arts institutions to civic initiatives, helping them turn good ideas into actual action.

Awareness alone won’t move the needle. We’re in the business of getting people in the room, on the road, at the table. That’s the work. That’s always been the work.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ll start with the honest version: it was and continues to not be easy.
But “complicated” is what makes life interesting, right?

I’ve spent my career chasing rooms where I believed the work could matter. That instinct started early. At North Dakota State University I was the Concerts Coordinator producing one concert a month for the university and I also co-produced Sorority Recruitment for the entire campus, and somewhere in the middle of all that logistics wrangling and partner management I realized I was genuinely lit up by the process of bringing people together at scale. Not just the event itself, but what happened between people because of it. That realization pointed me straight to Phoenix.

I moved here for an Events Manager role with the Arizona Restaurant Association, where I was part of the team that built Arizona Restaurant Week from the ground up. Being present at the creation of something that now defines the culinary calendar for an entire state taught me early that the most lasting work comes from genuine collaboration. No one builds something like that alone. You build it by knowing who to call, by showing up consistently, and by making sure everyone in the room feels like a real partner, not just a vendor or a checkbox.

From there I joined Downtown Phoenix Inc. as Director of Events, and that chapter really tested me. I inherited a portfolio of 11 events a year and grew it to 150+, not by grinding in isolation but by building an ever-expanding web of relationships with city leadership, businesses, community organizations, and creatives of every kind. I created the Urban Ale Trail and Urban Wine Walk during that time, which sounds fun on the surface and it absolutely was, but the real goal was to gamify the newly built Valley Metro Light Rail and give people a joyful reason to actually use it. That’s how I tend to approach problems. I’m always looking for the creative entry point that makes participation feel irresistible rather than obligatory. VIVA PHX, a downtown music festival, came from that same thinking.

Then I moved to RED Development, and that’s where some of the work I’m most proud of happened. I produced CitySkate, a real ice skating rink that closed down Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix for six weeks every holiday season. One of my favorite moves on that project was convincing the team to redirect the décor budget into a public art partnership with the Phoenix Art Museum. Instead of generic holiday decorations we commissioned local artists. It cost roughly the same and gave the community something meaningful. The person at the Museum I worked with to make that happen was Leilani Hudson. I filed that collaboration away as one of the best I’d ever had. More on that in a moment.

But the project that genuinely changed me was Upward & Onward at CityScape. I looked at two statistics sitting right next to each other. One, that 80% of individuals with disabilities who qualify for state funding are unemployed. Two, that once trained, employees with disabilities show higher-than-average loyalty and job satisfaction. I saw a match, not a problem. So we partnered with Phoenix Union High School District and UnitedHealthcare to turn a vacant conference room at CityScape into a classroom and used the surrounding downtown businesses as a real-world internship lab. Students walked to their internships. Confidence skyrocketed. Results in year one were outstanding. I received the 2019 Distinguished Service to Exceptional Children award for that work, and I will tell you honestly it is the recognition I am most proud of in my entire career. Because it reminded me that events and programs are just containers. What you put inside them is what actually matters.

Going independent was the hardest leap. I started Proxsea on my own, a boutique firm built entirely on relationships and a belief that a strong network is the most valuable thing you can offer a client. One of the things I’m most excited about from that chapter is a project I developed alongside Dr. Cindy Standley and Craig Randich called the Artist and Researcher Exhibition, ARx. The premise was to bring art into bioscience and create collaborations between artists and researchers that could translate complex local research into narratives the general public could actually connect with. It’s one of those ideas that sounds simple until you’re in the middle of it, and then you realize you’re doing something genuinely new. Bridging those two worlds, science and art, in a way that makes both more accessible is exactly the kind of intersection I live for.

Now I’m building CONTEXT, a community development studio, and here’s where the story comes full circle. My co-founder is Leilani Hudson, the same person from the Phoenix Art Museum who helped me bring public art to CitySkate all those years ago. That’s not a coincidence. That’s what happens when you treat every collaboration like it matters, because it does. The best partnerships have a way of finding you again. CONTEXT is the fullest expression of everything I’ve learned: that awareness alone won’t move the needle, that connection and active participation do, and that before people participate they need to feel like they belong. Everything we do, whether it’s events, programs, campaigns, or creative representation, is in service of building social capital one genuine connection at a time.

What do I want the world to know about me and my story? I think it’s this: I have never been the most credentialed person in the room. I have never had the biggest budget or the most obvious path forward. What I’ve had is an almost stubborn belief that the right people, brought together with intention and care, can build something that outlasts any single event or program. I’ve built a career on that belief. I’ve won awards because of it. I’ve seen it change lives. And I’m nowhere near done.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A week in Phoenix with my best friend? Buckle up. I have opinions.

First thing I’d say is: check the findcontext.co calendar and the btwphx.com calendar before you book your flights. Seriously. We keep a running list of the best events, workshops, rides, and experiences happening in and around Phoenix, and I’d want to time your trip around something on there. Plan around the calendar and we’ll fill in the rest.
Now. Arizona is not just Phoenix. If you’re coming to see me, we are using every single day and we are leaving the city limits more than once. Here’s how I’d run it.

Day one: arrival and downtown immersion. We’re starting slow on purpose. Orange juice at Valentine first thing, because it will ruin you for every other OJ you’ve ever had. Then pastries at JL Patisserie because the pastries deserve their own itinerary. If its a First Friday we’d go walk Grand Avenue and eat at Barcoa. That night we’re catching whatever show Stateside Presents has at the Crescent Ballroom, Valley Bar or The Van Buren, three of the best music venues in the country in my completely unbiased opinion, and if Anwar Newton has a comedy show happening anywhere in the city that week, we are going. Non-negotiable. He is one of the funniest people in Phoenix and supporting local comedy is something I feel strongly about.

Day two: bikes, birds, and the city. We’re starting the morning at the Audubon Society on the Rio Salado. The Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area is one of those places that genuinely surprises people, a riparian corridor right in the middle of the urban valley teeming with birds that have no business being that beautiful and that close. Bring binoculars. Then we’re joining a group ride off the Bike to Wherever PHX calendar, because the community that shows up to those rides is exactly the kind of energy I want my friend to experience early in the trip. It sets the tone for what Phoenix actually feels like from the inside. If timing works, Sunday morning we’re on South Mountain for a silent Sunday ride before the heat shows up. No cars on the mountain road, just bikes and saguaros and the whole valley spread out below you. It’s one of my favorite things I get to do in this city. And somewhere in here we’re signing up for whatever workshop is on the findcontext.co calendar that week, whether it’s a collage session with cut + paste, a community conversation, or something else entirely. That’s the whole point of what we build, and I want you to experience it firsthand.

Day three: Sedona. We’re getting up early and driving north. Sedona has some of the best hiking in the world and I mean that without any local bias filtering it. Oak Creek Canyon, West Fork Trail, Cathedral Rock, Devil’s Bridge, Broken Arrow, take your pick. We’re spending the full day out there, eating somewhere with a red rock view, and driving back when the light turns gold and everything looks like a painting.

Day four: Grand Canyon. This one gets its own day and honestly could get its own week. The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places on earth, full stop. We are not just standing at the rim and taking a photo. We are hiking down to the river and back. It is hard and it is hot and it is worth every single step. There is nothing that recalibrates your sense of scale and time quite like standing at the bottom of that canyon with the Colorado River in front of you. Bring water. Bring snacks. Start early. Trust me.

Day five: Tucson day trip. Tucson deserves more credit than it gets. We’re riding the loop, which is one of the best urban cycling paths in the country, a paved trail that runs along the rivers through the whole city. Then if legs are willing we’re going up Mount Lemmon, a climb that takes you from saguaro desert to pine forest in about 27 miles and is a bucket list ride for any cyclist. We’re stopping at the Summerhaven cookie cabin at the top because that’s the rule.

Day six: Arizona Wine Country, Patagonia and gravel. Southeast Arizona is a different world and most people never see it. We’re heading down to Patagonia for gravel riding through wine country and grasslands with sky islands in the background. It’s quiet and beautiful and the kind of riding that makes you feel like you found something most people don’t know exists. After riding we’d go to the Senoita / Elgin area to do some wine tasting. Making sure to hit Rune Vineyard for sunset.

Day seven: the neighborhood slow day. Our last day belongs to Phoenix proper and we are going at a low simmer. Morning hike through Dreamy Draw, which winds through the Phoenix Mountain Preserve and never gets as crowded as it should given how good it is. Then a picnic in Sunnyslope up in North Mountain, one of my favorite neighborhood pockets in the city. The chopped salad at The Gladly for lunch because it sounds too simple to be as good as it is and yet here we are. And we’re ending the night at two-step night at the Dirty Drummer, because if you haven’t two-stepped with a room full of strangers in Phoenix then you haven’t really been to Phoenix.

One week. Zero regrets. Come visit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I sincerely draw inspiration from everyone I meet. I’m one of those people who never lost their childlike curiosity and truly find an interest in everything. I even have a drawer filled with quotes, thoughts, ideas I’ve been moved by throughout the years. I love a powerful statement that matches the moment and will go to “the drawer” when I need a little pick me up.

To name a few names of people with consistent impact on my life is to call out my partner Danny Upshaw and Co-founder Lelani Hudson. Danny’s optimism is only matched by my own and he also has a brilliant gift for storytelling and connecting people in ways that feel effortless and genuine.

Lani has the gift of patience that honestly feels like a superpower. Her eye for high design raises everything we touch. She has sixth sense of seeking out the most interesting things to do and see. And she also, without question, is an artist whisperer.

Website: https://findcontext.co

Instagram: @findcontext

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/andersonsara

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/context-236647296

Other: btwphx.com
artistresearcher.com

Image Credits
Danny Upshaw
@unheard_harmony