Born in 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri, Jane Sauer is a multifaceted player in contemporary craft. Sauer has been a gallerist, program director, board member, and art educator, but she entered the field as a fiber artist. Interested in art since childhood, Sauer earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1959. Though she was originally focused on painting, Sauer shifted to fiber – drawn to the tactile and meditative qualities of the work. Sauer is now known for her basket forms, made with knotted waxed-linen. She often creates works to be shown in pairs or groupings that suggest intimate interpersonal interactions. Conscious of the early origins of her craft, Sauer is interested in connecting to the experience of her ancient predecessors through shared manual knowledge. In the late 1990s, Sauer relocated from St. Louis to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was a founder of the Textile Art Alliance and became involved in gallery work. She served as artistic director of Thirteen Moons Gallery for several years before taking over management in 2005. Her eponymous Jane Sauer Gallery was a Santa Fe fixture until closing in 2013. Sauer has exhibited around the world and been collected by many museums, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. She received the 2002 Award of Honor from the Craft Alliance and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University in 1998. Jane Sauer was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2002.