Beth Rudin DeWoody
Quick Facts
Biography
Beth Rudin DeWoody (born 1952) is an American art patron, collector, curator, and philanthropist.
Biography
DeWoody was born to a Jewish family, the daughter of Gladyce (née Largever) and Lewis Rudin. She has one brother, William Rudin. Her parents later divorced and remarried: her father to Rachel Rudin; and her mother to film executive David Begelman.
DeWoody's interest in art started as child where she attended the Rudolf Steiner School after which she went on to earn a B.A. in anthropology and cinema studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She then worked as a production assistant on such movies as Hair (film) and Annie Hall. After marrying artist James DeWoody, she began to get deeply involved in the SoHo art scene where she began to nurture young contemporary artists such as E.V. Day and Tom Sachs. In 1982, she went to work for her father's real estate company where she rose to the rank of vice president in addition to growing her art collection and sponsoring new artists as well as serving as a curator.
Philanthropy
DeWoody serves as President of the Rudin Family Foundation, and sits on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art since the mid 1980s, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Creative Time, The New School University, Design Museum Holon in Israel and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Personal life
Rudin DeWoody has been married twice. Her first husband was artist James DeWoody with whom she had two children: Kyle (cofounder of Grey Area which markets artist-made wares) and artist and designer, Carlton. In 2012, she remarried to photographer Firooz Zahedi. She has homes in West Palm Beach, Florida and Manhattan.