Collectively, art and culture organizations are a part of an ecosystem that provides the resources, support, space, and connection needed for artists to thrive and engage with their communities. From providing an artist’s first big moment, to being the sole art space in town, to offering the time artists need to experiment, to supplying opportunities for exchange and wonder, to caring for their archives and homes.
We support organizations that acknowledge the fullness and interconnectedness of artists’ lives and whose missions are clearly rooted in the communities they serve.
The formation of Ruth Arts’ multi-year Thought Leaders program is inspired by the breadth of Ruth Koher’s life and giving—non-hierarchical and committed to structural change with an unwavering generosity and a dedication to the unexpected. Through a substantial, sustained level of support, our multi-year program uplifts organizations undertaking ambitious, transformative initiatives with long-term impact. Organizations that are dedicated to the complex work of forming new possibilities through experimentation, capacity building, and deeper understandings and investigations of our histories, environments, or the full arc of an artist’s life.
Sites & Stewardship nurtures the ever-evolving and exceptional relationships between artmaking and place. Rooted in Ruth DeYoung Kohler II’s long standing love of artist-built environments, this inaugural program stems from the belief that new possibilities emerge when we value the specificity of spaces in the pursuit of creativity.
