Arts of Life to receive $50,000 grant from Ruth Foundation for the Arts

Arts of Life is thrilled to have been selected for a $50,000 grant from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts.

This grant is a part of the Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts)’s newest cycle of grantmaking programs, which will provide a total of $7.5M to 138 arts organizations. 

“These programs are at once forward-facing and anchored in Ruth DeYoung Kohler II’s inimitable legacy,” says Executive Director Karen Patterson. “We’re proud to honor Ruth’s lifelong commitment to the arts by continuing to fund the organizations she personally supported, and to develop new programs in her spirit of experimentation and community-building.”

The Core Grant Program provides approximately $50,000 in funding to each of 86 nonprofit arts organizations—$4.5 million in total. The one-year program builds out the Foundation’s programmatic scope and geographic reach.

The Thought Leaders Program grants a total $4.5 million in multi-year funding to 14 nonprofit arts organizations. Each organization is slated to receive approximately $300,000 within the next three years. Through this substantial, sustained level of support, these multi-year grants uplift organizations undertaking ambitious initiatives with long-term impact. An integral aspect of the program is its emphasis on generosity and thought leadership—that the participating organizations commit to public knowledge sharing throughout their term.

The RDK Legacy Fund is dedicated to honoring and continuing Ruth DeYoung Kohler’s steadfast support of regional and craft-based organizations and artist-built environments. The Fund will provide $1.5 million annually across 40 organizations historically supported by Ruth DeYoung Kohler II. Collectively, these three streams total $10.5 million in funding across 140 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations.

These new grant programs, alongside the Artist Choice Grant announced earlier in 2022, total $11.75 million in grantmaking by Ruth Arts to date. Consideration for future grant cycles will continue on an invitation-only basis as Ruth Arts grows and develops. Additional programs currently under development will be announced in the coming year. 

 

We congratulate our fellow Ruth Arts Fall 2022 Grant Cycle Recipients:

Thought Leaders

• Afro Charities (Baltimore, MD)
• Arts @ Large (Milwaukee, WI)
• Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX)
• Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE)

• Benny Andrews Estate (Brooklyn, NY)
• Coleman Center for the Arts (York, AL)
• Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, CA)
• Independent Curators International (New York, NY)
• Pasaquan (Buena Vista, GA)
• People’s Kitchen Collective (Oakland, CA)
• Rivers Institute (New Orleans, LA)
• The Black School (New Orleans, LA)
• The Laundromat Project (Brooklyn NY)
• Toshiko Takaezu Foundation (Quakertown, NJ)

 

Core Grant

• Artists’ Cooperative Residencies & Exhibitions (Chicago, IL)
• Performance Space (New York, NY)
• Project Onward (Chicago, IL)
• Center for Land Use Interpretation (Culver City, CA)
• TRADES A.I.R. (Honolulu, HI)
• Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (Portland, OR)
• DiverseWorks (Houston, TX)
• The Luminary (St. Louis, MO)
• Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee, WI)
• Art Handlxrs* (San Francisco, CA)
• Movement Research (New York, NY)
• On the Boards (Seattle, WA)
• Pu’uhonua Society (Honolulu, HI)
• Orange Show Center for Visionary Arts (Houston, TX)
• Self-Help Graphics and Arts (Los Angeles, CA)
• Asia Art Archive in America (Brooklyn, NY)
• Queer Cultural Center (San Francisco, CA)
• Beta-Local (San Juan, PR)
• Salvation Mountain (Calipatria, CA)
• Art.coop (United States)
• Lauren Edson Dance (LED) (Boise, ID)
• Big Car Collaborative (Indianapolis, IN)
• Related Tactics (Washington, DC/San Francisco, CA)
• Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center (Asheville, NC)
• Center for Native Futures (Chicago, IL)
• Dr. James W. Washington Jr. and Mrs. Janie Roggua Washington Foundation (Seattle, WA)
• Publica Espacio Cultural (San Juan, PR)
• High Concept Labs (Chicago, IL)
• The Last Resort Artist Retreat (Baltimore, MD)
• Studio Arts Boulder (Boulder, CO)
• Wormfarm Institute (Reedsburg, WI)
• Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York, NY)
• Project for Empty Space (Newark, NJ)
• Women’s Studio Workshop (Rosendale, NY)
• S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio (Venice, CA)
• Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden (Raleigh, NC)
• Black Lunch Table (Chicago, IL)
• Alternate Roots (Altanta, GA)
• Amargosa Opera House (Death Valley, VA)
• Appalshop (Whitesburg, KY)
• BlackStar Projects (Philadelphia, PA)
• Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas, MO)
• Children’s Museum of the Arts (New York, NY)
• Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY)
• Creative Growth (Oakland, CA)
• CAM Summer Fellowship (Memphis, TN)
• Baxter Street Camera Club (New York, NY)
• Griot Museum of Black History (St. Louis, MO)
• Art Omi (Ghent, NY)
• BalletX (Philadelphia, PA)
• Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago, IL)
• First Light Alaska (Anchorage, AK)
• First Peoples Fund (Rapid City, SD)
• Materials for the Arts (Long Island City, NY)
• Los Angeles Visual Arts Coalition (Los Angeles, CA)
• GYOPO (Los Angeles, CA)
• Brooklyn Rail (Brooklyn, NY)
• Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME)
• Institute 193 (Lexington, KY)
• Print Center New York (New York, NY)
• Real Time and Space (San Francisco, CA)
• Locust Projects (Miami, FL)
• Skowhagen School of Painting & Sculpture Inc (New York, NY)
• Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Los Angeles, CA)
• MARSH STL (St. Louis, MO)
• All My Relations (Mineapolis, MN)
• Penumbra Foundation (New York, NY)
• The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA)
• Pike School of Art (Summit, MS)
• Poeh Cultural Center (Santa Fe, NM)
• Milwaukee Film (Milwaukee, WI)
• Sala Diaz (San Antonion, TX)
• Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, MN)
• Side Street Projects (Pasadena, CA)
• Taller Puertorriqueño (Philadelphia, PA)
• The Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe, NM)
• Project Row Houses (Houston, TX)
• The Children’s Art Carnival (New York, NY)
• The Heidelberg Project (Detroit, MI)
• The Leather Archives and Museum (Chicago, IL)
• Twelve Gates Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
• White Columns (New York, NY)
• Museum Jurassic Technology (Culver City, CA)

 

RDK Legacy Fund

RDK Education

• Smith College (Northampton, MA)
• Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (Milwaukee, WI)

RDK Art Environments

• Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest (Valton, WI)
• Wisconsin Concrete Park (Phillips, WI)
• Prairie Moon (Fountain City, WI)
• Friends of S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden Inc. (Lucas, KS)
• The Hartman Rock Garden (Springfield, OH)
• Langlais Sculpture Preserve (Rockland, ME)
• Paul and Mathilda Wegner Grotto (Sparta, WI)
• The Chauvin Sculpture Garden (Chauvin, LA)
• Grandview (Hollandale, WI)
• Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum (Wilson, NC)

RDK Wisconsin

• Artists Working in Education, Inc. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Create Wisconsin, Inc. (Madison, WI)
• Lakeshore Chorale, Inc. (Sheboygan Falls, WI)
• Milwaukee Ballet Company, Inc. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Inc. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Mecikalski Stovewood Buildings Foundation, Inc. (Pelican Lake, WI)
• Plymouth Art Foundation, Inc. (Plymouth, WI)
• Racine Art Museum Association, Inc. (Racine, WI)
• Renaissance Theaterworks (Milwaukee, WI)
• Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (Sheboygan, WI)
• Ten Chimneys Foundation, Inc. (Waukesha, WI)
• Theater For Young Audiences, Inc. (Sheboygan, WI)
• Weill Center for Performing Arts, Inc. (Sheboygan, WI)
• Woodland Pattern (Milwaukee, WI)
• American Players Theater of Wisconsin (Spring Green, WI)
• Sheboygan Theater Company (Sheboygan, WI)
• United Performing Arts Fund, Inc. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Inc. (Madison, WI)
• Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters (Madison, WI)

RDK Midwest

• Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Chicago, IL)
• Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN)

RDK Craft

• Penland School of Craft (Penland, NC)
• National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (Boulder, CO)
• Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis, MN)
• American Craft Council (New York, NY)

 

ABOUT THE RUTH FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS

The Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts) is a new grantmaker based in the Midwest and dedicated to meeting the evolving needs and lived experiences of artists, communities, and arts organizations whose work is anchored by visual arts, performing arts, and arts education. Based in Milwaukee and national in scope, the Foundation reflects the culture and spirit of the Midwest, which long inspired its namesake and benefactor Ruth DeYoung Kohler II. Led by Executive Director Karen Patterson, as well as Program Directors Kim Nguyen and Rachel Reichert, the Foundation is a responsive and adventurous new force in the realm of arts philanthropy.

ABOUT RUTH DEYOUNG KOHLER II

A lifetime supporter of the arts, Ruth DeYoung Kohler II (1941-2020) was deeply committed to artists and consequently, broke down hierarchies and categories within the art world to center artists, support communities, and engage with overlooked art forms. She made significant contributions to the arts across the U.S., including serving as Chairman and member of the Wisconsin Arts Board, acting as a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Organization panel member and past site evaluator, as founder of the Preservation Committee of Kohler Foundation, Inc., and Director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for more than forty years. 

Among the many awards and honors Ruth received are the Governor’s Award for the Arts, Wisconsin; Visionary Award, American Craft Museum; Visionary Leadership Award, Center for Intuitive and Outside Art; Visionary Lifetime Achievement Award, Museum of Art and Design; and honorary doctorates from various institutions of higher learning.

She believed passionately that the arts reveal who we are as a people: past, present and future. She promoted equitable and inclusive access to the arts in her local community, her home state of Wisconsin, and on national and international levels.