RENAISSANCE WOMEN

These five women of power are taking Austin's arts and culture scene to the next level.

JENNIFER RANSOM RICE The Advocate

In session: As executive director of the Texas Cultural Trust, Jennifer Ransom Rice recently wrapped up the 2017 biennial Texas Medal of Arts Awards, which honor the best in the state across all disciplines and philanthropy. With that big production in her rearview, she is focusing the rest of the current legislative session on funding for the Texas Commission on the Arts and its Cultural Districts Program.

Personal mission: Rice’s family believed in the importance of arts education, so she took lessons in piano and ballet from a young age. “My parents always made sure we were involved in and exposed to the arts,” says Rice. “To broaden our minds and look at the world in a different way was very important.”

Business sense: The arts, a $5.5 billion industry in Texas, deserves more funding from the government, Rice says. “Business, development, and progress—which we need for our city to grow—has to be done responsibly and collaboratively with our arts and entertainment industry,” she says.

website: txculturaltrust.org twitter: @txculturaltrust

SUZANNE DEAL BOOTH The Philanthropist

Blank canvas: Suzanne Deal Booth’s career has spanned the globe and art world alike. An art historian, conservationist, and philanthropist, the native Texan serves on a number of museum boards and is co-founder of the Friends of Heritage Preservation.

Mentor musings: She tributes her longtime mentor, art collector and philanthropist Dominique de Menil of Houston’s Menil Collection, for her love of classic and eclectic culture. “There were objects from all different centuries that she would pull together, like a puzzle, and tell a story in a room,” says Booth.

Magnum opus: Since settling here nine years ago, Booth has been investing in Austin’s visual art scene. Her latest endowment, in association with The

Contemporary Austin, is the Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize: a biennial award of $100,000 and a solo exhibit to an artist of any age. “The arts are a critical part of what determines who we are and how we address our history,” she says. “There’s room in Austin to encourage the next step: an enlightened cultural environment.”

website: sdbooth.com