Ruth Gumnit is a media artist. Over the last twenty years she has produced work for the stage, screen and gallery. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in Filmmaking, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch College in Visual Art - Filmmaking, and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an NEA/Rockefeller Interdisciplinary Artist Award and a fellowship in dance videography from the National Initiative for the Preservation of American Dance.

Her exhibition, "When There are No Trees, Bamboo is King: Portraits and story fragments of Karen (Ka-ren) refugees from Burma" was on display in April, 2000 at the Luggage Store Gallery Annex in San Francisco. It was accompanied by her front page article for the Sunday section of the San Francisco Chronicle for April, 2, 2000.