Discover Ruby City, San Antonio’s stunning contemporary art center born from Linda Pace’s vivid dream. This jewel-like red building by David Adjaye houses 1,400+ works, sculpture gardens, and free programming.
Ruby City is a contemporary art center that serves as a bold testament to the power of one woman’s vision and the transformative role art plays in society. Founded on the dedication to art, artists, and community, Ruby City represents the dream and deeply held beliefs of collector, artist, and philanthropist Linda Pace.
In 2007, Pace awoke from a vivid dream of a glowing red structure—sketched it in colored pencil—and entrusted that vision to Adjaye Associates. The result is a 14,472‑square‑foot jewel-like edifice of red precast concrete, punctuated with mica and glass, that glitters under the Texas sun. Adjaye’s design, rooted in Pace’s sketch, integrates bold gestures—a multi-pitched roofline, cantilevered entrance, and soaring spaces—welcoming visitors into the building and encouraging them to ascend into the light-filled galleries.
Since its grand opening on October 13, 2019, Ruby City has become a cultural landmark of San Antonio—hailed by TIME as one of the world’s greatest places—while fulfilling Pace’s enduring aspiration: to gift her art and her dream to the city she loved.
At its heart is the Linda Pace Foundation Collection—more than 1,400 paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and video works spanning local and international contemporary artists. The Foundation actively acquires new works each year, which, echoing the themes and character of Pace’s own collecting, reflect a feminist perspective, engage social issues, and consider aspects of spirituality and beauty.
Ruby City also encompasses an extraordinary campus that includes a sculpture garden and Chris Park, a one-acre green sanctuary dedicated to Linda’s late son. Studio, located within the park, is an additional exhibition space repurposed from the artist’s old studio. Collectively, Ruby City offers programming inspired by its collection and exhibitions, inviting the public to connect with art, themselves, and one another through dream workshops, meditation sessions and hands-on art programs and opportunities to learn from and about artists year-round. With a focus on meaningful engagement, it’s a space in which personal and communal connections with art are fostered and creativity is celebrated. And it does so with no admission or program fees—extraordinary works, extraordinary access.
Ruby City represents a rare convergence of dream, design, and intention—where art’s transformative power is made tangible, free, and accessible. It is an invitation to be part of something radiant: a contemporary art institution that honors its creator’s vision, embraces its community, represents the best of international and regional contemporary art and stands proudly—ruby-red and resolute—at the heart of San Antonio.
rubycity.org
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