Ruth Foundation for the Arts
OVERVIEW: The Ruth Foundation for the Arts supports arts and culture organizations broadly, including visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, writing, and arts education.
IP TAKE: The Ruth Foundation for the Arts practices a type of giving it describes as “nonhierarchical and committed to structural change.” While this is a relatively newer funder, its first rounds of grantmaking have been aggressive. It is possible that the Foundation’s funding strategies and preference for invitation-only support may evolve as it finds its groove.
The Ruth Foundation does not explicitly state a preference for one type of art over another, although, based on past grantmaking, the visual arts, such as painting or sculpture, appears to receive more support than the performing arts. Grantseekers with a strong connection to their local community and those serving underrepresented groups will do very well here. However, since all grant programs are by nomination or invitation only, those seeking funding will need to find an indirect method of getting on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: Established in June 2022, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts is a national arts organization that was created with a $440 million bequest from the late Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, a supporter of the arts who served as Director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for over fifty years. It seeks “to explore new possibilities for arts philanthropy through an artist-driven approach,” and “support those that center the unconventional and the exciting” by “responding to the evolving needs of [its] community and working across a wide spectrum of lived experiences.” The Ruth Foundation supports the arts broadly and makes grants to organizations throughout the United States.
Grants for Arts and Culture: Visual Arts, Dance, Music, Theater, Film, Writing, and Arts Education
The Ruth Foundation has several different Grant Programs that support different aspects of the arts ecosystem. Most of these programs are by nomination or invitation only.
The Thought Leaders program provides $300,000 over three-years to “organizations undertaking ambitious, transformative initiatives with long-term impact.”
The Core Grants program supports organizations that are rooted in a sense of place and help to increase access to the arts to their local community. The most recent round of grants provided $50,000 in unrestricted funding to 86 organizations.
The RDK Legacy fund provides grants to arts and culture groups in the Midwest that Ruth DeYoung Kohler II felt a personal connection with. These organizations receive continued support on an annual basis.
The Sites & Stewardship program centers “artists and site-specificity at all stages of a project.” It is an invitation only program that funds up to thirty organizations with either seed grants or major project support.
Finally, Artist Choice is a participatory program that selects recipients based on the nominations of 50 different artists. Nominating artists were asked to “nominate organizations that have impacted their creative practice and contributed to the ecosystem of artmaking and community connections.”
In November 2022, the foundation announced that it made a total of $7.5 million in grants to 140 nonprofit arts organizations through the Thought Leaders and Core Grant programs, and the Ruth DeYoung Kohler (RDK) Legacy Fund.
Important Grant Details:
Currently, grant amounts range from roughly $30,000 to $300,000, although with only a couple of grant cycles under its belt, this may change in the future. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or requests for funding and only makes grant by invitation only.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: