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Ruth Arts Foundation
Milwuakee, WI
The Ruth Arts space is the adaptive reuse of a former warehouse located in Milwaukee’s historic Walker’s Point district. As the foundation’s first public physical space, the multipurpose building functions as an art gallery, a community kitchen, and artist studio. Soft-Firm collaborated closely with the Ruth Arts Foundation to articulate how the interior fit-out could support the organization’s vision for a home that cultivates artists, their collaborators, and the community.

The material palette utilizes stainless steel and plywood saturated with colors from the Ruth Arts’ graphic identity. Materials are a pragmatic nod to the spaces’ industrial history, and provide a tactile pop of color against the space’s existing whitewashed brick, concrete, and exposed timber palette.

We imagined the user experience as travelling through a gradient of zones: Welcome, Gallery, Community, and Studio. Within this gradient, we focused on strategic interventions that support a range of public programs at multiple scales of gathering, from viewing art, receptions, artist talks, art creation, community workshops, performance, to simply co-working for Ruth Arts employees.


+ Renovation designed by MOS
+ Table & kitchen fabrication by Zak Rose / Dock 6 Collective 
+ Photography by Landre 



Flexible millwork & furniture conceived of as nested, adaptable surfaces that function as display, work surface, seating, enclosure and storage
Flexible millwork & furniture conceived of as nested, adaptable surfaces that function as display, work surface, seating, enclosure and storage

At the Cubby, nested benches and stools can be deployed through the space as clusters for intimate conversations,or arrayed as audience seating for performance.
At the Cubby, nested benches and stools can be deployed through the space as clusters for intimate conversations,or arrayed as audience seating for performance.

In the Studio, a tool shed functions as a working shop, or can be screened off with movable partitions that serve as pin-up surfaces on one side, and vertical storage on the other.
In the Studio, a tool shed functions as a working shop, or can be screened off with movable partitions that serve as pin-up surfaces on one side, and vertical storage on the other.


At the Bar, a community kitchen with two convertible tables can be rearranged froma kitchen counter, to a conference table, to a bar for staging events.

At the Bar, a community kitchen with two convertible tables can be rearranged froma kitchen counter, to a conference table, to a bar for staging events.





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