Ragdale's History
For over 120 years, Ragdale’s historic campus and prairie landscape has served as a generative home of artistic achievement made possible through a culture of excellence, generosity, and inclusivity. Ragdale is located 30 miles north of Chicago and was designed in 1897 by renowned Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw as a summer retreat for his creative family. The Shaw family included two architects, two poets, a sculptor, a painter, a weaver, and a cartoonist and they often welcomed artistic peers, including Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay, to join them at Ragdale. In 1976, the poet, teacher, and social activist Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes transformed her family's summer retreat into an inclusive nonprofit space for artists of all disciplines. The Ragdale Foundation has since served more than 4,000 creative professionals from around the world who have examined, created, and presented their work at Ragdale.
Today, Ragdale grants artists the time, space, and setting needed for creative exploration and achievement. Ragdale is proud to be a leader of cultural and artistic communities through its highly-regarded artists’ residency program, 50 annual public programs, and school outreach program that serves more than 1,000 students and teachers. Each year Ragdale welcomes nearly 250 artists, designers, and scholars for residencies and paid employment. Ragdale plays a vital role in supporting and facilitating the creation of important new works of art in addition to fostering extended learning opportunities which provide access to our residents’ works.
Ragdale’s commitment to cultural equity and community engagement has led to dozens of public projects each year. The Ragdale in Schools program empowers creative youth and their teachers by supplementing the often limited arts curriculum in underserved schools. Educational outreach provides opportunities for live discourse, hands-on investigation, and mentoring with artists who are actively defining and shaping creative culture.
