Recently, four artists got a phone call that would change their lives. They found out they were the inaugural recipients of the Ruth Awards, a new prize from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts that distributes $100,000 each to critically engaged artists. The debut winners are mixed-media artist Rose B. Simpson, performance artist and composer Kite, interdisciplinary artist Candice Lin, and sculptor and installation artist Joe Minter.
Nominated by a group of twelve esteemed curators including Adrienne Edwards, Katherine Jentleson, Victoria Sung, and Dan Byers, the recipients were chosen for their “continuous inquiry, imagination, and rigor,” according to the foundation. The organization, which honors the legacy of Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, is perhaps best known for its flagship grant program Artist Choice. The program asks artists to recommend organizations that have shaped their own creative practices to receive unrestricted grants.
For executive director Karen Patterson, the Ruth Awards are a natural extension of the foundation’s mission. “It was always our intention to develop an award to directly support and acknowledge artists,” she says. “As is true with Artist Choice, having the award be unrestricted is essential to us, as our grantmaking is anchored on mutual respect, care, and trust. Artists helped us begin, and this is a thank you for guiding us into the future.”
“I refuse the boundaries of medium in my practice, I refuse cultural and racial stereotypes in my practice,” says Kite, whose tools range from artificial intelligence to embroidery. “Instead, I want my love for my relatives and the knowledge they share with me to be the generative kernels to create new knowledge with new technologies.”
Even in their widely divergent practices, the artists in the inaugural Ruth Awards cohort share a core motivation with Kohler, the Ruth Foundation’s namesake: to process the complexities of life through art, and help others do the same. “The biggest question I carry is ‘how can I help,’” says Simpson, whose work in painting, fashion, ceramics, and performance convenes women on the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. “I offer it to spaces, to communities, to contexts. Then, I listen.”
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