As a mother of six, Asawa always involved her children in the creative process, transforming her Noe Valley home in San Francisco, California into a space for artmaking. In her multidisciplinary approach, she often used materials that were child-friendly and economical, enabling her to develop a community-focused approach to art. She invented her well-known Baker’s clay from a simple combination of flour, salt, and water, and used this homemade dough in her arts education programs.

Asawa’s belief that a child who is motivated and educated in creativity can grow and flourish into a successful individual went beyond the domestic realm. In the late 1960s she began volunteering at her children’s elementary school, teaching art with affordable materials. According to Asawa, constraints were the best spurs to artistic invention. This experience led her to cofound with friend and fellow parent, Sally Woodbridge, the Alvarado School Arts Workshop, a coalition of artists and parents striving to bring a hands-on approach to arts education.

Often working directly with students, Asawa and others developed an arts curriculum using everyday materials that echoed her studies at Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina. Elements such as Baker’s clay, milk cartons, and wood crates were transformed into elaborate communal projects developed by artists and students, from ephemeral sculptures to gardening containers and mosaics. At about the same time, Asawa became a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission and began lobbying politicians and charitable foundations to support arts programs that would benefit young children in San Francisco. Some of these elements are documented in the photographs included in this section.

Ruth Asawa and her children at home on Saturn Street, San Francisco, 1957.
Photograph by Imogen Cunningham
© 2026 Imogen Cunningham Trust / www.ImogenCunningham.com
Artwork © 2026 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner