Ruth DeYoung Kohler Timeline
![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Studies at University of Hamburg, Germany
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), July 31, 1961, page 8
1961![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Ruth and her father in the Swiss Alps
Ruth DeYoung Kohler and Herbert Vollrath Kohler, Sr., 1963. Photo courtesy of Kohler Archives.
1963![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Invited to submit art to the Arts Center’s first exhibition, Paper ’68
The puppet, made entirely of paper, is the work of Ruth Kohler. The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), November 20, 1967, page 20
1968![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Appointed Assistant Director of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), July 19, 1968, page 15
1968![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Capital campaign to build first Arts Center expansion launches
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), August 22, 1968, page 4
1968![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Visits Fred Smith’s Wisconsin Concrete Park and Rock Garden Tavern in Philips, Wisconsin
Fred Smith with Lincoln-Todd Monument, Wisconsin Concrete Park, (site view, c. 1962), Phillips, WI, 1948–64. Photo: Robert Amft, courtesy of Robert Amft Archive, Friends of Fred Smith, Inc.
1969![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
First Sidewalk Arts Festival (later renamed Outdoor Arts Festival, then Midsummer Festival of the Arts)
First annual Sidewalk Arts Festival, July 1971
1971![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Appointed Director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), March 20, 1972, page 3
1972![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Appointed by Governor Patrick Lucey to serve on newly formed Wisconsin Arts Board
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), December 4, 1973, page 7
1973![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
The Plastic Earth opens—one of the largest contemporary ceramics exhibitions in the United States
The Plastic Earth installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1973.
1973![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
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Elected for a three-year term on the Beloit College Board of Trustees
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), June 10, 1978, page 4
1978![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Visits Herman Rusch’s Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden in Cochrane, Wisconsin
Herman Rusch, Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden and Museum (site view, This for the Birds and Arches, 2006), Cochrane, WI, 1952–79. Photo: Michelle (Shelly) R. Nooyen.
1979![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Footlights performance series is launched
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), September 20, 1982, page 15
1982![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Visits the Milwaukee home of artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
Marie Von Bruenchenhein, Ruth DeYoung Kohler, and Phil Martin of the Wisconsin Arts Board at the Von Bruenchenhein home, not long after Eugene Von Bruenchenhein's death in 1983. Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK.
1983![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Arts Center becomes a collecting institution with the acquisition of works from Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s estate
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, untitled (bone chair), c. 1965–70; fowl bones, paint, glue; 7 x 4 1/8 x 4 1/8 in. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection. Photo: Rich Maciejewski, 2016.
1983![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Awarded honorary doctorate in humane letters, Lakeland College, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), May 16, 1984, page 13
1984![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Voyages, the Arts Center’s first themed exhibition series, opens
Voyages installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1986.
1986![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Named a fellow at Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Madison, Wisconsin
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), October 21, 1989, page 7
1989![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Named Honorary Member of the Council, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), April 29, 1990, page 22
1990![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
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Arts Center commissions six artists to transform the restrooms into works of art
Matt Nolen, The Social History of Architecture (detail, west wing men's washroom), 1999; vitreous china and glaze. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection. Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
1995![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Over 150 sculptures from Nek Chand’s Rock Garden of Chandigarh gifted to the Arts Center by Kohler Foundation, Inc.
Nek Chand at the Rock Garden (site view, 1994), Chandigarh, India, 1965–2015. Photo: Maggie Jones Maizels, courtesy of Raw Vision.
1996![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Presented with Wisconsin’s Governor’s Award for the Arts
The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), November 21, 1997, page 41
1997![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Receives a Visionaries! award from the American Craft Museum
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), October 17, 1999, page 25
1999![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Arts Center expansion is completed
Birds-eye view of the Arts Center Building and Grounds with the sculpture Keepsake by Patrick Dougherty, July 2001
1999![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Receives 2003 Visionary Leadership Award from Intuit
Left to right: Ruth Kohler of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center accepting Intuit’s 2003 Visionary Leadership Award from Intuit President Cleo Wilson and board member Lisa Stone.
2003![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Awarded honorary doctorate from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), May 8, 2005, page 22
2005![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds exhibition begins and catalogue is published
Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists (2007) book cover
2007![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
First Big Sheboygan Shebang performed before a sold-out crowd
The Big Sheboygan Shebang, August 14, 2009.
2009![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-3ia7K6.png)
Receives honorary doctorate from Alverno College
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Steps away from directorship of Arts Center and named director emerita
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), February 5, 2016, page A1
2016![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Three artist-created washrooms are commissioned for the Art Preserve
Detail of Joy Feasley and Paul Swenbeck's Listen, the Snow Is Falling washroom installation at the Art Preserve, 2021.
2018![](https://www.jmkac.org/wp-content/uploads/Timeline/RDK/LogoMakr-1vHEIS.png)
Arts Center, working with Kohler Foundation, Inc., acquires an additional 8,300 objects from Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s estate
The Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), August 3, 2019, page A1
2019