Ruby Lerner is the founding Executive Director of Creative Capital, an innovative arts foundation that adapts venture capital concepts to support individual artists. Under her leadership, Creative Capital committed more than $40 million in financial and advisory support to 511 projects representing 642 artists. This commitment helped those artists leverage nearly $100 million in additional support. She stepped down from the organization in June 2016 to pursue consulting work and independent research.

Prior to Creative Capital, Ruby Lerner served as the Executive Director of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF) and as Publisher of the highly regarded Independent Film and Video Monthly. Having worked regionally in both the performing arts and independent media fields, she served as the Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, a coalition of Southeastern performing artists, and IMAGE Film/Video Center, both based in Atlanta. In the late 1970s, she was the Audience Development Director at the Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York’s foremost nonprofit theaters.

In May 2016, Lerner was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Maine College of Art. In 2017, Lerner was the inaugural Herberger Institute Senior Policy Advisor at Arizona State University and Innovator-in-Residence at CalArts. For 2018 she is serving as Advisor to the Arts Exchange Program of the Open Society Foundation, assisting in the design of a new Fellowship Program for international artists.

She recently joined the Advisory Boards of New INC at the New Museum and Eyebeam, and was appointed to the Board of Directors at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.