Sarah Coote was born in Southern Rhodesia and grew up in various locations, - London, England, Australia, California and Ottawa.
In the late 1970s Sarah completed two years at the Sheridan School of Crafts and Design, studying with Bruce Cochrane and Winn Burke.
In 1983 She graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Instructor - Walter Ostrom.
Sarah attended the Kent State University in Ohio, instructor, John Gill.
She earned an MFA at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
Sarah returned to Halifax and taught for three years at the ceramic department at NSCAD with Walter Ostrom.
For two summers she gave workshops at La Escuela de Ceramica de La Bisbal in Catalunya, Spain.
After teaching at NSCAD Sarah was the sabbatical replacement for Tam Irving at ECUAD, in Vancouver.
Sarah has lectured and taught at many institutions; Rhode Island School of Design , University of Colorado, and was a visiting artist at PWS Experimental Factory (Jingdezheng, China. Her work is held in public collections and she has exhibited across North America
Sarah moved to Vancouver and by 1992 she became Head of the Ceramics Department when Don Hutchinson retired, and taught there until 2016. She served on the Board of the Potters Guild of BC in 1992. Later, Sarah joined the North-West Ceramic Foundation Board and served until 2011.
In 2018 Sarah participated in a collaborative exhibition on Saltspring Island,' Fault Line Projects', curated by Alwyn O'Brien who had taken over as Head of Ceramics Department at Langara College when Sarah retired.

"When I make functional pottery I try to give utility and beauty an equal role. For me the most direct way to do this is to use function as the inspiration. Using a combination of throwing and hand building techniques, I reinterpret traditional forms. I approach this in a spontaneous way by combining thrown parts, literally drawing with the clay as I go. The wheel in particular exploits the natural fluid qualities of the clay and gives me the interior volumes and structural integrity, which I think are essential for good pottery". - Sarah Coote