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Press Release: Ruth Foundation for the Arts Announces 2025–2028 Core Grant Recipients

Awarding $25.35 Million to 169 Organizations in Expanded Three-Year Program

Milwaukee, WI, January 9, 2026 – The Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts) is pleased to announce the 2025–2028 recipients of their Core Grants, now awarding $25.35 million in unrestricted funds over three years to 169 arts and cultural organizations across the country. The $8.45 million awarded annually nearly doubles the $4.5 million awarded to organizations in 2024. This cycle also marks a shift from a one-year grant to a multi-year program, with recipients receiving a total of $150,000 over three years.
Core Grants were introduced in 2022 as an application-based program open to previous recipients of an Artist Choice award. Designed to provide current grantees with opportunities for additional unrestricted support, Core applications are initially reviewed by a rotating group of readers who work across disciplines and regions. During each cycle, a relevant theme frames the grant questions meant to invite collaboration and reflection within the applicant organization.

“While the specific application questions change each cycle, the program always encourages deep self-reflection. The questions prompt each organization to examine and reconnect with their own unique values, histories, and the ‘core’ of who they are,” said Senior Grants Manager Zola Yi. “In turn, insights from the readers—esteemed peers from across the field—allow us as a Foundation to better understand the priorities of the arts ecosystem as a whole. Findings throughout the first three iterations of the program have shaped Core into what it looks like today: a multi-year structure for unrestricted grants, aiming to provide organizations with the stability and space for long-term planning.”

As a national program, Core provides a snapshot of the current cultural landscape each year, giving insights into the strategic, imaginative, and critical ways organizations are approaching their work today. Ranging from emergent organizations to longstanding institutions, each successful organization receives a grant of $150,000 over three years.

The 2025–2028 Core Grant recipients are:

ACRE
Chicago, IL/Steuben, WI
Alaska Native Heritage Center, to support Alaska Native PLACE
Anchorage, AK
Alice Austen House
Staten Island, NY
AMBOS Project
Los Angeles, CA
Angels Gate Cultural Center, to support Slanguage Studio
Wilmington, CA
Antenna
New Orleans, LA
Appalshop
Jenkins, KY
Arab American Community Development Corporation, to support La La Lil Jidar
Philadelphia, PA
Art Enables
Washington, DC
ArteEast
New York, NY
Artists Alliance Inc, to support Black Painters Academy
New York, NY
Arts at Large
Milwaukee, WI
Arts Foundation of Kosciusko
Kosciusko, MS
Arts of Life
Chicago, IL
Asia Art Archive in America
Brooklyn, NY
Asian American Arts Alliance
New York, NY
Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, to support QTViet Cafe Collective
Berkeley, CA
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
Bronx, NY
BalletX
Philadelphia , PA
Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York
New York, NY
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Omaha, NE
Benny Andrews Estate
Brooklyn, NY
Big Car Collaborative
Indianapolis, IN
Black Art Library
Detroit , MI
Black Arts MKE
Milwaukee, WI
Black Lunch Table
Chicago, IL
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Asheville, NC
BlackStar Projects
Philadelphia, PA
Brooklyn Rail
Brooklyn, NY
The Center for Afrofuturist Studies at Public Space One
Iowa City, IA
Center for Hmong Arts and Talent
St. Paul, MN
Center for Land Use Interpretation
Culver City, CA
Center for Native Futures
Chicago, IL
The Center for Photography at Woodstock
Kingston, NY
Charlotte Street Foundation
Kansas City, MO
The Clay Studio
Philadelphia, PA
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance
Denver, CO
Coleman Center for the Arts
York, AL
Community Partners, to support Las Fotos Projects
Los Angeles, CA

Contemporary Art Library
Los Angeles , CA
Contemporary Arts Memphis
Memphis, TN
Corita Art Center
Los Angeles, CA
Cousin Collective, to support New Red Order
National
Creative Growth Art Center
Oakland, CA
Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts
Pendleton, OR
Culture Push
New York, NY
Dance Place
Washington, DC
Danspace Project
New York, NY
Deaf Spotlight
Seattle, WA
Denniston Hill
Glen Wild, NY
Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network
San Francisco, CA
Dirt Palace & The Wedding Cake House
Providence, RI
DiverseWorks
Houston, TX
Ecosystems of Care, to support Cooperation Racine
Chicago, IL
Elsewhere
Greensboro, NC
Experimental Sound Studio
Chicago, IL
FD13 Residency for the Arts
Minneapolis, MN
Fictional Artists Contemporary Theatre San Francisco, to support RUPTURE
National
The Field, to support POT
Los Angeles, CA
First Light Alaska
Anchorage, AK
First Peoples Fund
Rapid City, SD
Fractured Atlas, to support Trades A.i.R.
Honolulu, HI
Materials for the Arts
Long Island City, NY
Fusebox
Austin, TX
The Griot Museum of Black History
St. Louis, MO
Groundworks Art Lab
Boulder, CO
GYOPO
Los Angeles, CA
Harlem Stage
New York, NY
Hawai‘i International Film Festival
Honolulu, HI
Headlands Center for the Arts
Sausalito, CA
Henry Street Settlement, in support of Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY
High Concept Laboratories
Chicago, IL
Human Resources LA
Los Angeles, CA
Hyde Park Art Center
Chicago, IL
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Santa Fe, NM
Independent Arts & Media, to support its Anti-Eviction Mapping Project fund
New York, NY
Indigenous Peoples Task Force, to support Ikidowin Theater Ensemble
Minneapolis, MN
Institute 193
Lexington, KY
ISSUE Project Room
Brooklyn, NY
James and Janie Washington Foundation
Seattle, WA

The Jazz Gallery
New York, NY
Josephine Sculpture Park
Frankfort, KY
Junior High
Los Angeles, CA
Juxtaposition Arts
Minneapolis, MN
Kamoinge
Metuchen, NJ
Kelly Strayhorn Theater
Pittsburgh, PA
Kinetic Light
Brooklyn, NY
The Kitchen
New York , NY
The Lab
San Francisco, CA
LACE
Los Angeles, CA
The Last Resort Artist Retreat
Baltimore, MD
LATITUDE Chicago
Chicago, IL
The Laundromat Project
Brooklyn, NY
Leather Archives & Museum
Chicago, IL
Lelooska Foundation & Cultural Center
Ariel, WA
Living Arts of Tulsa
Tulsa, OK
LTSC Community Development Corporation, to support Tuesday Night Project
Los Angeles, CA
The Luminary
St. Louis, MO
Lynden Sculpture Garden
Milwaukee, WI
Ma’s House
Southampton, NY
Mahogany Black Arts and Cultural Center
Racine, WI
Marble House
Dorset, VT
Maude Kerns Art Center
Eugene, OR
Midway Contemporary Art
Minneapolis, MN
Movement Research
New York, NY
Native American Community Development Institute
Minneapolis, MN
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation
Portland, OR
Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development
Richmond, CA
Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture
Joshua Tree, CA
Northwest Film Forum, to support Wa Na Wari
Seattle, WA
NXTHVN
New Haven, CT
On the Boards
Seattle, WA
Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency
Saugatuck, MI
Pangea World Theater
Minneapolis, MN
Participant Inc
New York, NY
Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden
Bishopville, SC
Penumbra Foundation
New York, NY
Performance Space New York
New York, NY
Pike School of Art – Mississippi
McComb, MS
Plataforma Eje
El Caribe
Poeh Cultural Center
Santa Fe, NM
Print Center New York
New York, NY

Producer Hub, to support First Nations Performing Arts
New York, NY
Project EATS
New York, NY
Project for Empty Space
Newark, NJ
Project Onward
Chicago, IL
Project Row Houses
Houston, TX
Puʻuhonua Society, to support Hoʻomau Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina, Kāʻū, HI
Queer Cultural Center
San Francisco, CA
Queer Cultural Center, to support Art Handlxrs*
San Francisco, CA
RAIR
Philadelphia, PA
Recess
Brooklyn, NY
Rivers Institute
New Orleans, LA
Sala Diaz
San Antonio, TX
Self Help Graphics & Art
Los Angeles, CA
Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, to support Secwépemc Language Society
Eureka, CA
Shunpike, to support Seattle Asian American Film Festival
Seattle, WA
Side Street Projects
Altadena, CA
Sixty Inches from Center, to support For the Birds Trapped in Airports
Los Angeles, CA
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
Madison, ME
Smack Mellon
Brooklyn, NY
Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs, to support LAVA Coalition
Los Angeles, CA
Social Good Fund, to support People’s Kitchen Collective
Oakland, CA
SOMArts, to support Macro Waves
Oakland, CA
SOMArts, to support Related Tactics
National
South Side Community Art Center
Chicago, IL
Storefront for Art and Architecture
New York, NY
Surf Point
York, ME
Taller Puertorriqueño
Philadelphia, PA
Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja
Bay Shore, NY
Thiossane Institute
Columbus, OH
TILT Institute
Philadelphia, PA
Toshiko Takaezu Foundation
Jersey City, NJ
Tropic Editions
Honolulu, HI
Twelve Gates Arts
Philadelphia, PA
Ucross Foundation
Clearmont, WY
Ulises
Philadelphia, PA
The Union For Contemporary Art
Omaha, NE
Urban Bush Women
Brooklyn, NY
Visual AIDS
New York, NY
Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
Milwaukee, WI
Wave Hill
Bronx, NY
White Columns
New York, NY

Women Photograph
New Orleans, LA
Women’s Studio Workshop
Rosendale, NY
Woodland Pattern
Milwaukee, WI
The World Stage Performance Gallery Los Angeles, CA
Yaddo Saratoga Springs, NY
YAYA
New Orleans, LA

ABOUT THE RUTH FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
With an inventive approach to philanthropy and artistic support rooted in creativity, care, and experimentation, The Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts) launched in 2022 to support organizations in the visual and performing arts. Leading with its flagship Artist Choice program that is guided by an artist-driven nomination process, the foundation continues to honor the legacy of its founder Ruth DeYoung Kohler II (1941–2020) with ten distinct grant programs. Thanks to Ruth’s vision and generosity, Ruth Arts has been able to award over $55 million in grants to date. In 2024, Ruth Arts opened an art space in Milwaukee as an extension of its grantmaking. This year, Ruth Arts collaborates with Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought—an inaugural 2022 Artist Choice awardee—to present an extensive viewing of works by Bettina Grossman (1927–2021) while actively engaging with and revealing more of the artist’s archive. Original Order Order Original: The Art and Archives of Bettina runs through April 3, 2026.
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Press inquiries may be directed to press@rutharts.org.

Recent News

MIXED MEDIA AND STILL LIFE

Works in EMERGENCE are diverse in their subject matter and media, but a few themes reappear throughout. Working in abstraction or in the traditionally peaceful genre of still life, artists like William Carter, Allen Stringfellow, and Jonathan Green express themes of interiority or sociability, history or modernity. Notably, Stringfellow and Ralph Arnold both experimented with media and materials and worked extensively in collage, which allowed them to combine abstract design, figurative imagery, and on occasion political ideas.

Viewers typically expect Black artists to focus on particular aspects of their social and political identities within their work. Where might those expectations come from? Still life, abstraction, and collage may express many different things about artists’ interior lives and their visual and social observation, whether connected to public manifestations of identity or not.

William Carter’s mid-century still life Untitled presents a group of vibrantly colored bottles that invite the viewer’s gaze, set against a similarly colorful background with floral elements like grapes and leaves. They give evidence of conviviality and might be interpreted as symbols of social gatherings, but they could also just be a collection of pleasing forms. We might put Carter’s still life in dialogue with that of Jonathan Green, who became close friends with Carter while living in Chicago. Green’s close-up view of an eloquently simple composition presents oranges, a pear, and a lemon in front of two vessels. Works like this piece call the viewer to examine the objects the artist chose to include, to consider how they interact with each other like bodies in space, and to reflect on their meaning within the traditional genre of still life painting.

Collage might suggest the piecing together of identity from different components that might not usually coexist, giving room for more expansive imaginations of meaning than a straightforward representational image might allow. It could also just be an inventive way of combining colors, shapes, and textures. Allen Stringfellow’s Untitled, a collage from 1962, brings familiar motifs from still life—fruit and flowers, desserts and glassware—together with imagery of artist’s models and performers. Layered with paint and tissue paper that frustrate the viewer’s attempt to get clarity on the subject matter, the bursts of form and colors hint at the splashy abstraction of Stringfellow’s untitled, textured painting made from house paint and particulate on cardboard. Here the artist tests commonly found materials to create new textures and plays with the creation of colors and finishes that diverge from “Western” academic painting methods.

In The Waiting, Arnold constructs a large collage from different paper components, lace, and paint. In the piece, elements of European and African art are placed in dialogue with one another, while some figures appear alone and isolated, others in large groups. Without giving easy answers, Arnold implies questions about social issues. Who is waiting, and for what? In his Love Sign II, which bears the words “Love is Universal,” Arnold asserts the equal validity of all types of romantic affection and love, utilizing collage to convey a more straightforward political message.