Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts (2009-2021) in Melbourne, Florida

The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts was a free museum of cloth, clothing and fiber art that Florida Tech opened on its Melbourne campus on August 29, 2009.

According to Florida Tech News, it opened to the public on Saturday, August 29, 2009, at 10 a.m., with free admission, and it was the only textile arts center in the state of Florida. The university's address is 150 W. University Boulevard, and the building stood in the heart of campus next to Evans Library.

The building now serves a different purpose. The Florida Tech esports facility page says esports is located at the Ruth Funk Center, which was renovated and opened on September 7, 2021, so the Funk name still marks the same building beside Evans Library. This page covers how the museum came to Florida Tech, what it held and showed, and what the building holds now.

Ruth Funk's gifts, from a $50,000 program gift in 2004 to a $1.25 million building gift announced in 2006, created the textile museum at Florida Tech, as the university's 2006 release describes.

Ruth E. Funk was an artist, designer and teacher originally from Texas, and her ties to Florida Tech began in 2003, when she exhibited at the campus Dream Weavers textile arts display, according to the 2015 Florida Tech notice of her death. She first gave hundreds of ethnic textiles, pieces of wearable art and cultural artifacts, and added almost 500 volumes on art and design to Evans Library.

The program grew in steps. In April 2004, a $50,000 gift from Melbourne resident Ruth Funk paid for new art and design courses and a textile arts program, half as endowment and half as seed money, and she made a further commitment of $1 million over time with a museum in mind. Among the pieces she gave then was a 19th century dowry coat from Turkistan.

In October 2006 the Funk Textiles Gallery opened in the Crawford Building, and at its gala President Anthony J. Catanese announced that Funk had donated $1.25 million toward a 10,000 square foot textiles facility. The 2006 Florida Tech release set the projected budget at $1.5 million, with the university providing the remaining $250,000. Groundbreaking for the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts was set for April 25, 2008, at 1 p.m., and the 2008 groundbreaking notice expected the museum to open in 2009. Funk had joined the Florida Tech Board of Trustees in 2008, and the university announced her death at 92 on March 6, 2015.

The center was a two-story building with 3,000 square feet of exhibition space, and by 2019 its collection had grown to more than 1,600 objects, according to the 2019 Florida Tech release.

Holeman Suman Architects Inc. of Melbourne designed the building, according to the 2008 groundbreaking notice, and the 2019 anniversary release names Melbourne architect Craig Suman. The 2008 plan for the two-story center listed 3,000 square feet of exhibition space, 2,500 square feet of storage and work space, 700 square feet for a mezzanine library and 600 square feet for a lobby and grand stairway. The gallery was one stop on a short walk across the Florida Tech campus: the 2019 Florida Tech release placed it between Evans Library and the Gordon and Joy Patterson Botanical Garden.

The 2006 plan called for an environmentally controlled collection storage space, and the 2008 notice described traditional handmade textiles, embroidery and garments from many nations, European and North American embroidery, lace and samplers from the 17th through 20th centuries, and contemporary wearable art. By August 2013 the Ruth Funk Center permanent collection held more than 1,000 objects, and by August 2019 it had grown to over 1,600 objects from five continents representing over 500 years of history. Florida Tech named its strengths as Japanese kimono, South African beadwork, Central Asian embroidery and the Panamanian clothing called molas.

More than 30 exhibitions ran at the Funk Center in its first decade, starting with Coat Couture: Inspiration to Creation in 2009, according to the Florida Tech anniversary release.

The opening show, Coat Couture: Inspiration to Creation, paired the embellished coats and jackets of Ruth Funk with traditional textiles from the collection, including African mud cloth, Chinese embroidery, Panamanian molas and Asian ikats. Curated by Carla Funk (no relation) and Thea Rusch, it ran at the Florida Tech center through December 12, 2009. Hours that first season were Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Later shows at the Florida Tech center in Melbourne rotated through the permanent collection and loans. Textiles and Culture: Highlights from the Permanent Collection ran from September 14 to December 14, 2013, with South African beadwork, Meiji era kimonos and Central American embroidery. In 2017, Flora and Fiber opened on May 20 with over 60 textiles and related objects from three continents, including an 18th century handwoven bamboo undervest from China and a cape by Mariano Fortuny, and Cloth as Community: Hmong Textiles in America, with 28 flower cloths and story cloths, opened September 23 and closed December 16, 2017.

By its tenth anniversary in August 2019, Florida Tech counted over 50,000 patrons and more than 30 exhibits at the Funk Center, among them The Little Black Dress, Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art and Redress: Upcycled Style by Nancy Judd. Nearly 250 contemporary fiber artists from Florida, the United States and abroad had shown work there, and the staff had grown from two people to six.

The Florida Tech pages re-read on October 18, 2026, show the museum building reopening as an esports center on September 7, 2021, but they give no closing date for the museum and do not say where its collection went.

The university's other museum in Melbourne followed a similar path. A March 15, 2021 Florida Tech release said the final exhibition at the Foosaner Art Museum would remain open until June 19, after which the Foosaner would permanently close. The Foosaner had been the Brevard Art Museum until it merged with Florida Tech in the summer of 2011, and the July 25, 2011 release announcing its new name also noted that the university opened the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts in 2009 as the only center of its kind in Florida. A 2020 Florida Tech release tied the Foosaner properties to the Eau Gallie Arts District.

Reports of a May 2020 closure decision for the Funk Center, and of collection transfers to Ocala, appeared only in news coverage, so this guide does not repeat them. What the official record does show is the staffing link between the two museums: in 2019, Carla Funk was the Funk Center's founding director and also executive director and chief curator of university museums.

The building now houses the Ruth Funk Esports Center, which the Florida Tech esports facility page says was renovated and opened on September 7, 2021, for Florida Tech students.

The same page lists 60 gaming PCs, a competition stage with a spectator viewing area, a console room, a student lounge and a broadcast and production room, and entry requires a valid Florida Tech ID.

For anyone tracing the museum's history in Melbourne, the surviving record is mostly in print: the Florida Tech news archive and the 2009 book Cloth and Culture: Couture Creations of Ruth E. Funk, which the 2015 Florida Tech notice describes as more than 400 full color images in 280 pages. Ruth Funk's work as an artist was also shown at the Maitland Art Center, the Vero Beach Museum of Art and the Brevard Art Museum, the institution that later became the Foosaner.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against eleven Florida Tech news releases from 2004 to 2021 and the university's esports facility page.