2024 Judge

Jessica Kay Ruhle loves art and loves sharing it with people. She has led the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM), a contemporary art museum in Billings, Montana, since January 2022. At the YAM, she is focused on increasing regional access to the arts by eliminating admission costs, expanding educational programming, reopening the YAM’s Artist-in-Residency program, and growing the Museum’s endowment.

Ruhle’s career in museums has centered around the educational possibilities in museums and increasing audience engagement with the arts. Previously, she was the Director of Education at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. At the Nasher Museum from 2010-2021, she led Reflections: The Nasher Museum’s Alzheimer’s Program, directed the gallery guides, and led the planning of all educational programs. Under her leadership, the Education department expanded to provide museum accessibility to a wider audience, including teen programs, bilingual programs, strengthened community partnerships, and events for visitors with low sight and differences in hearing. She was the 2014 and 2018 NC Museum Educator of the Year, awarded by the North Carolina Art Education Association.

 Before arriving at the Nasher, Ruhle worked in the museum education field at a variety of institutions including a hands-on children’s museum, the NC Museum of Art, the NC Museum of History, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She holds a B.A. in Art History from Davidson College and a M.A.T. in Museum Education from The George Washington University. Prior to her academic work in art history, Ruhle fell in love with art and museums at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. Her grandmother, Gerrye West, was a docent at the Polk Museum and took Ruhle to the galleries often. She attended summer camps at the Museum throughout elementary and middle school and credits the Polk Museum with her life-long interest in the arts.