Ruby City Opening in San Antonio

Ruby City, the freshly completed museum is set to open this fall in San Antonio. The 15,000 sq ft contemporary art center is dedicated to providing a space for the city’s thriving creative community to experience works by both local and internationally-acclaimed artists. Envisioned in 2007 by the late collector, philanthropist and artist Linda Pace (1945-2007), the $16 million complex presents works from the Linda Pace Foundation Collection of more than 900 paintings, sculptures, installations and video works.

Pace sketched the initial inspiration for the ruby structure after waking from a dream. A sparkling crimson building appeared to Linda in her sleep and then using colored pencil; she sketched the fanciful image and shared it with world-renowned architect Sir David Adjaye OBE. Adjaye said, “When I got the sketch I sort of felt like… this is like a sort of puzzle. I immediately seemed to understand it, it seemed to kind of unlock itself for me. I thought it was a kind of dense poem, a sort of dense mediation on all that she wanted to happen. And in a way, I took from it literally, and I took from it also… in terms of history, the past and the possible future. She called it Ruby City. It was somehow a kind of a podium with this sort of beautiful city temple — almost a kind of image of a shining city on a mound.”

Sir David Adjaye OBE is recognized as a leading architect of his generation. Born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents, his broadly ranging influences, ingenious use of materials and sculptural ability have established him as an architect with an artist’s sensibility and vision. In 2000 he founded Adjaye Associates, which now has offices in London, New York and Accra. His largest project to date, the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in 2016 and was named Cultural Event of the Year by The New York Times. In 2017, Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was recognized as one of the 100 most influential people of the year by TIME Magazine.

Ruby City opens to the public on October 13, 2019.