Sara Vance Waddell was born on April 28, 1962, and was raised in Ripley, Ohio where she lived for 27 years. She graduated Cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Morehead University in 1994, with an emphasis in advertising and public relations.
Sara is the owner/president of SMV Media, a media management company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sara is a community advocate, philanthropist, art collector and social justice and animal advocate. She has amassed one of the largest collections of women’s art in the Midwest featuring national, international and local artists.
Sara has handled many local accounts including the Cincinnati Art Museum, Newport on the Levee, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and Summerfair Cincinnati, and consults with several local advertising agencies. Her expertise also includes marketing and creative strategy.
An only child, Vance had an enviable and special relationship with her mother, who moved from a nursing career to being a talented entrepreneur running several businesses. “I’m a lot like my mother in many ways.” Sara says, “while the art my mother collected was limited to her favorite, John Ruthven.”
It’s a long way, literally and figuratively, to the New York art scene from Sara’s birthplace in Ripley, Ohio, a journey she never envisioned. With the exception of those John Ruthven paintings that her mother enjoyed collecting, Sara didn’t grow up with art or visiting museums. It wasn’t until she was hired as a media buyer for the Cincinnati Art Museum some two decades ago that art became part of her life.
“Going to the museum for meetings and walking through the Great Hall, walking through galleries and seeing the art, it did something to me. I can’t explain it, it just happened. And at that point I decided to start being philanthropic and made a donation to the museum in memory of my mom. I want her legacy of generosity to continue.”
After Patricia A. Vance died, her daughter established the Patricia A. Vance Foundation Endowment for Education and Community Outreach (now The Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation) which gave as one of its first gifts an entire wing named in her mother’s honor at the Cincinnati Art Museum, as well as additional monies for community outreach. It also provided the sixth level of the Contemporary Arts Center with The Sara M. and Patricia A. Vance Education Center, the “UnMuseum®” for children.
Similarly the Foundation is helping with the renovation of the Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing for the families of patients of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Avondale as well as to FACE (For AIDS Children Everywhere) and has also contributed to 4C for Children, a local childcare resource and referral agency. A special feature of the Ronald McDonald House renovation is the Star Tower, a beacon of light that is visible to the children, signaling where their parents are staying.
Sara’s infectious warm personality infuses everything she does, and in counting the staggering number of boards on which she has served, one is impressed with the underlying theme of sharing and enriching the lives of others. Sara was appointed by former Governor Ted Strickland to sit on the Ohio Arts Council Board (2010-2014), and she currently sits on the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Board, Artworks (Past President and board chair) and is a trustee emeritus, The Neuberger Museum of Art in New York, Ohio Citizens for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Chaine-Mondiale and Cancer Family Care as past and present board chair. Her previous board commitments have included The Contemporary Art Center as vice president, Cincinnati Art Museum as Acquisitions Chair, Enjoy the Arts, The March of Dimes, The Ronald McDonald House Charities, Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati and Equality Cincinnati. Sara sponsored the permanent art exhibition at the John P. Parker House in Ripley, provides transportation for Brown County students to visit Cincinnati Art Museum and regularly supports the Brown County Humane Society in Georgetown.
All of Sara’s fur children were born in Georgetown. Sara’s hobbies include boxing, pickleball, wine and art collecting. She lives in Indian Hill with her wife Michelle and fur children Bella and Ziva D.
Sara was named to the Enquirer Cincinnati Women of the Year Class of 2010. On Saturday October 29, 2022, she will be inducted into the Brown County Hall of Fame. The Brown County Historical Society event is at the Georgetown United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall at 6 PM. Refreshments will follow the inductions. The public is welcome. Admission is free but donations are welcome.