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Lucas' historic Garden of Eden art site is a recipient of an unrestricted grant from newly formed Ruth Foundation for the Arts.
Honoring the legacy of Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, Ruth Arts announced Friday 140 arts organizations have been recognized by two new grants and one legacy fund. The Garden of Eden was honored to be among the fall 2022 recipients with an RDK Art Environments grant.
Th grant also includes Thought Leaders, which awards recipients $300,000 in the next three years, and the Core Grant, which awards recipients $50,000.
The Ruth DeYoung Kohler Legacy Fund, mirrors the support Ruth DeYoung Kohler made to arts institutions throughout her lifetime.
“These programs are at once forward-facing and anchored in Ruth DeYoung Kohler II’s inimitable legacy,” said 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.”
This fall’s inaugural Core Grant is providing approximately $50,000 in funding to each of 84 nonprofit arts organizations—$4.5 million in total. The one-year program builds out the foundation’s programmatic scope and geographic reach.
The multi-year Thought Leaders grants total $4.5 million in 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.
Supported by a generous bequest from the late Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, Ruth Arts relaunched in June 2022 with the Artist Choice Grant, which features a unique nomination process guided by a panel of more than 50 artists.
The inaugural Artist Choice Grant provided a total of $1.25 million in funding to 78 nonprofit arts organizations across the United States, and will be awarded annually in the spring.
“We understand this field to be a continuum, in which our activities are intertwined with and built upon the incredible work that these organizations have accomplished and continue to pursue,” aid Kim Nguyen, program director of Artistic Initiatives. “The Thought Leaders are engaging in transformative pursuits, with a willingness to reimagine and re-envision the future of art, and we are so grateful we get to learn alongside them.”
“It is a tremendous honor for the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation to be included in the inaugural Ruth Foundation for the Arts Thought Leaders cohort,” said Darlene Fukuji, president of Toshiko Takaezu Foundation. “Their team, particularly Karen Patterson, Rachel Reichert, and Kim Nguyen, have been incredibly supportive, taking a collaborative approach to navigating the unique complexities of an artist-endowed foundation. My great aunt Toshiko Takaezu paved the way for many artists, especially women, and with this opportunity with the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, it feels like we are now paving the way for other artists who have been overlooked in history to finally have their legacies cemented.”
Distributed in the fall alongside the Thought Leaders and Core Grants, 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 $2.5 million annually across 40 organizations historically supported by Ruth DeYoung Kohler II.
Collectively, these three streams total $11.5 million in funding across 138 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations.
These new grant programs, alongside the Artist Choice Grant announced earlier in 2022, total $12.75 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.
For more information about the Foundation’s grants and programming, visit the Ruth Arts website.