Sarah Nash Gates papers, 1974-2005

Sarah Nash Gates (1949-2015) was a costume designer and a professor at the University of Washington (UW) School of Drama for 30 years. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees at Boston University in 1973, before completing a Master of Arts degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1974. After her initial graduate studies, Gates taught at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, Stephens College, and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Clown College, in addition to freelance work. In 1984, she completed a Master of Fine Arts at Boston University, before accepting at teaching position at the UW, teaching costume design and its history. Gates served as the first female president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) from 1992-1994 and was involved with the organization before and after her leadership role.

In 1994, she became the executive director of the School of Drama until her retirement in 2014, leading the department through the renovations of the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse, the creation of a design wing in Hutchinson Hall, the controversial production of "All Powers Necessary and Convenient" (written by Professor Mark Jenkins), and in 2010, a financial crisis resulting from state budget cuts that had campus wide impacts at UW. Her retirement was brief as she accepted a part-time role as the UW's interim divisional dean of the arts in the summer of 2015. However, she fell ill shortly after due to brain and lung cancer, which she ultimately passed away from on December 4, 2015.

Outside of her work at the UW, she also served as a founding board member of the Theatre Puget Sound, a board member of the 5th Avenue Theatre, and the president of the University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA). Throughout her career, she designed for the 5th Avnue Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, Seattle Opera, Pacific Performance Project, Tacoma Actor's Guild, A Contemporary Theatre (ACT), the Denver Center Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Opera Theatre, the Aspen Music Festival, and Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.

(Sources: "In Memoriam: Sarah Nash Gates," USITT Sightlines, http://sightlines.usitt.org/archive/2016/01/InMemoriamSarahNashGates.asp; "Sarah Nash Gates, theater artist and leader, dies at 66," The Seattle Times, https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/sarah-nash-gates-theater-artist-and-leader-dies-at-66/; "Treasured faculty member and theater professional, Sarah Nash Gates, loses battle with cancer," UW News, https://www.washington.edu/news/2015/12/08/treasured-faculty-member-and-theater-professional-sarah-nash-gates-loses-battle-with-cancer/; "Remembering Sarah Nash Gates," UW College of Arts & Sciences News & Events, https://artsci.washington.edu/news/2015-12/remembering-sarah-nash-gates; "Sarah Nash Gates," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Nash_Gates.)