Ragdale is a nonprofit artist community located on the former country estate of Arts & Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw and poet and playwright Frances Wells Shaw.

Nearly 150 residencies, numerous fellowships, and a variety of themed residencies are now offered annually to creative professionals of all types, making Ragdale one of the largest interdisciplinary artist communities in the country. Ragdale residents represent a cross-section of ages, cultures, experiences, and mediums, for a diverse and vibrant community.

In each session, artists-in-residence enjoy uninterrupted time for work and creativity, a supportive environment, dynamic artist exchanges, 20 acres of idyllic prairie, a 7-acre historically significant campus, and a family-style dinner each evening.

Ragdale’s Mission

To steward an inspirational environment that fosters courageous creativity and inclusive community through its artist residencies.

We give courage to and provide a setting for creative exploration and achievement by establishing a culture of excellence, generosity, and inclusivity within Ragdale’s historic campus and native prairie landscape—the essential qualities of our community’s 120-year legacy as a generative home of artistic production. Through residencies, fellowships, and thematic collaborations, Ragdale annually supports 150 artists, designers, and scholars from around the world, all of whom are seeking time and space to pursue distinctive works of the imagination. Ragdale’s commitment to cultural equity and community engagement underpins dozens of public projects each year, led by the Ragdale Youth Engagement program. Our educational outreach empowers creative youth and their teachers with uncommon opportunities for live discourse, hands-on investigation, and mentoring, with artists who are actively defining and shaping creative culture.

Equity and Inclusion Statement

We believe

• Everyone deserves equal access to a full, vibrant creative life, which is essential to a healthy and democratic society.

• Cultural equity is critical to the long-term viability of the arts sector.

• Inequity and injustice occur when individuals have unequal access to resources.

• We must all continually hold ourselves accountable, because acknowledging and challenging our inequities is how we can effect change.

• Artists, their art, their process, and the organizations they create and support play an essential role in witnessing, demonstrating, and providing inspiration to resolve societal inequity and injustice.

We strive

• To create a culture of equity by ensuring that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion—are represented in the development of Ragdale’s policies; its support of artists; the nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.

• To pursue cultural consciousness throughout our organization through substantive learning, transparent policies, and consistent evaluation.

• To commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, and advisory bodies.

• To acknowledge and dismantle inequities and barriers to entry within our policies, systems, programs, and services.

• To establish and nurture programs and policies that engage the full breadth of society.