Who are we? For now, Ruah is the Smiths.

Jessica Marie -Harmon Smith – Founder & Board President

A lover of beauty and truth, the heart of Ruah, Jessica heard the call to set out into the deep, to “duc in altum,” and establish a nonprofit in service to culture and the arts.  Leading up to this moment, Jessica’s life has not been without certain signs of this vocation.

Her interest and sensibility to the role faith plays in transforming culture emerged in university through studies in sociology.  Discovering herself and through her search for God, she moved through many places both geographic and spiritual. Born in Germany, raised in Virginia, Saudi Arabia and Alaska, it was a natural foundation for Jessica to live as an adult in Seattle, California, Maryland, Kansas, Indiana, Wisconsin and England.

Through conferences, visitations, and friendships in far places, her journeys led her to realize that her creative impulse and love of her faith was more than a passion—it was part of her calling.

As she delved deeper into both her faith and love of the arts, she saw the connection between the decline of truth and goodness in society and the confusion and decline in beauty. She realized that if Beauty is the physical expression of Goodness and Truth, then, in fact, in Dostoyevsky’s words, “Beauty will save the world.”  A renewal, a re-education in beauty was needed.

Though the work of Ruah will encompass philosophical formation in faith and culture, and promotion of patronage of all the arts, Jessica has a particular passion for the liturgical and sacred arts, film, and photography. Additionally, although Ruah’s foundations are Catholic Christian and very classical, Jessica—in the spirit of John Paul II’s Letter to Artists—insists upon a spirit of dialogue—spiritually, socially and artistically.

Through work in and out of the Church, friendships forged, and faith made firm, Jessica continues to see hope in the Holy Spirit for renewal of faith and culture.  She serves Ruah as the organization’s founder, bringing to light and communicating the essential vision of the agency, calling new participants to share this vision while helping organize events, conferences, and activities with her husband, John.

Thankfully done with her nomadic twenties, Jessica and her husband have settled just outside of Denver, Colorado, in the United States, where they are both looking for gainful employment, serving the Church and the wider community. Jessica volunteers with the Denver Art Museum.

A.O. John Smith – Board Vice President & Executive Director

A lover of truth and beauty, the soul of Ruah, John realized the contemplative dimension to the arts in his search for truth, and alongside Jessica, his beloved, was caught up in the mystery of how, indeed, “Beauty will save the world.”

John was nurtured into the world of fine arts with a mother who was a music teacher and a father whose parents were both musicians.  Raised in Indianapolis, concerts and trips to the art museum were commonplace.  As the search for truth began realizing itself as foremost, John entered more deeply into the heart of Christ, poured out in Divine Mercy, and began to see that this, indeed, is the most beautiful act of love man is to know.  Through studies in philanthropy and the arts, John formulated a real philosophy of art & education in university and through his spiritual family, the Community of St. John.  He continues to delve deeper everyday, now entering a new spiritual journey through the Byzantine Catholic traditions of the Church.

John continues to find hope in this new era of evangelization in the arts and through a new outpouring, a “new Pentecost” of the Holy Spirit, in the arts today.  He serves Ruah through foundational administrative development, new friendships and support and collaboration on mission goals.