Originally from North Down, Sarah is proud to be a graduate of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s famous Glasgow School of Art and she holds a PhD from the prestigious Royal College of Art in London (1993 – 2003). In 2004, Sarah established Gold-Digger 79 – a Northern Ireland gallery exclusively dedicated to contemporary jewellery.  From 2008 – 2011 McAleer lived in W. Australia where she gained experience of the W. Australian jewellery industry before returning back to N. Ireland in 2012.

In 2013 McAleer was awarded an Arts Council SIAP grant and CIIF Funding for her research into 3D-Digitially printed jewellery..