Ragdale Announces Winners of the Ragdale Ring Design-Build Competition and Launch of 2026 Summer Performance Series

Ragdale is pleased to announce Virginia-based Gluten and California-based Patrick Geske & Cody Miner as winners of the 2026 & 2027 Ragdale Ring Design-Build Competition. Selected from a record number of submissions, these projects explore architecture, landscape, and community engagement and will be used for a series of upcoming performances and public gatherings on the Ragdale campus. The selected teams will receive a $20,000 production stipend and an 18-day design-build residency for the construction of their selected designs, which will be on view for five months.

Front of House by Gluten will be on view in 2026, coinciding with the launch of Ragdale’s 50th Anniversary. Drawing inspiration from the historic Ragdale House, Gluten’s project will re-imagine elements of the façade as a landscape of forms to be engaged through direct experience. Rather than a single stage, Front of House will be an environment where performance, gathering and architecture overlap with one another, creating a space of wonder and exploration.

Stage Prop by the collaborative team of Patrick Geske & Cody Miner will be on view in 2027, marking the close of our Anniversary year. Through the construction of a circular platform that recalls the original 1912 Ragdale Ring, the work will present a measured intervention in the landscape. At the same time, with articulated hinges and specially designed seating, the stage can transform to meet the needs of various performance contexts, preserving the garden theatre’s essential character as an open space responsive to possibility and change.

2026 Summer Performance Series

Ragdale launches our Summer Performance Series on June 20-21 with a world premiere dance by featured company House of DOV. Presented by Drew Lewis, Ragdale alum and creative director of House of DOV, “Circle of Apathy” explores the cycles of growth and disintegration intrinsic to nature. The dance ensemble works together to build physical structures that increase in precarity as the group strives toward expansion, while the soul-funk collective Family Junket performs in parallel.

Additional show details and ticket link for the House of DOV Summer Solstice weekend performances, including a Ragdale Family Day on Sunday, June 21, are available online here. Additional 2026 Ragdale Ring Performance Series programs and dates will be announced on Ragdale’s website in May.

The 2026 and 2027 Ragdale Ring Design-Build Competition was juried by Colleen M. Humer, Regin Igloria, Chris-Annmarie Spencer, Lauren Stimson and Ragdale staff.

An archive of past winners can be found at the bottom of this page. The next open call for the Ragdale Ring Competition is anticipated to be in Fall 2027.

Inquiries about the Ragdale Ring and any Ragdale program can made to info@ragdale.org.

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About the Ragdale Ring

Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw designed the original 1912 Ragdale Ring as an open-air theatre to showcase the plays and poems of his wife, Frances Wells Shaw. Audiences gathered for outdoor performances on the property where the Shaws designed lighting systems, costumes and props to welcome an extended group of artists and friends, who saw Ragdale as a haven for creativity and community. These performances were hallmarks of the period and would also lay the groundwork for how future generations of artists would come to understand the transformative potential of Ragdale.   

In 2013 Ragdale launched the first design-build competition to activate the campus in new ways. Since that time, it has presented eleven dynamic open-air installations that have provided architects and designers with the opportunity to create works in a unique setting. These constructions have served as backdrops for public presentations of readings, musical performances, and theatrical productions, which encourage new ways of understanding architecture, public space, and the larger history of Ragdale.