Linda Pace Foundation (LPF)

Linda Pace Foundation (LPF)

The Linda Pace Foundation was established in 2003 by the late artist and philanthropist Linda Pace, whose fortune originated from her family's food business. The Paces sold their iconic Pace Picante brand to Campbell Soup Company in 1995, providing the capital that now endows the foundation. LPF is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, where it anchors the city's contemporary art ecosystem alongside its affiliated exhibition space, Artpace. LPF's investment strategy is structured to sustain a perpetual mission: funding the operations and programming of Ruby City, a crimson-colored museum designed by Sir David Adjaye that opened in 2019, and maintaining a collection of over 900 works by artists including Isaac Julien, Cornelia Parker, and Teresita Fernández. The foundation makes direct acquisitions and commissions, a posture distinct from traditional grantmaking foundations that simply distribute funds to third-party institutions. Confirmed holdings span the foundation's permanent collection displayed at Ruby City, adjacent CHRISpark, and on rotating loan. The foundation's board includes figures who bridge the art world and institutional governance. Kathryn Kanjo, CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, serves as president. Isaac Julien, the Turner Prize-nominated filmmaker and a close friend of the founder, is a trustee. Elyse Gonzales leads Ruby City's day-to-day operations as its director. In 2019, LPF realized the culmination of a decade-long planning effort with the public opening of Ruby City, the physical manifestation of Linda Pace's dream of a free, publicly accessible art space. LPF's structural differentiator is its operation of a purpose-built, architecturally significant museum as an in-house foundation project, rather than simply funding external organizations. This blurs the line between philanthropic endowment and cultural operator. The foundation owns both the museum building at 150 Camp Street and surrounding parcels like CHRISpark, embedding its mission directly into San Antonio's urban fabric.