Asawa had a passionate commitment to and was an ardent advocate for art education as a transformative and empowering experience, especially for children.<ref name=baker/> In 1968, she was appointed to be a member of the [[San Francisco Arts Commission]]<ref name="ruthasawa.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.ruthasawa.com/life2.html |title=Asawa's Life |website=Ruth Asawa Website |p=2 |publisher=Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. |date=2015 |access-date=August 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307181806/http://www.ruthasawa.com/life2.html |archive-date=March 7, 2015 }}{{sps|certain=y}}{{3pi}}</ref>{{vn}} and began lobbying politicians and charitable foundations to support arts programs that would benefit young children and average San Franciscans.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web |url=http://www.ruthasawa.com/activism.html |title=Arts Activism |website=Ruth Asawa Website |publisher=Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. |date=2015 |access-date=August 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218075429/http://www.ruthasawa.com/activism.html |archive-date=February 18, 2015 }}</ref> Asawa helped co-found the Alvarado Arts Workshop for school children in 1968.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In the early 1970s, this became the model for the Art Commission's CETA/Neighborhood Arts Program using money from the federal funding program, the [[Comprehensive Employment and Training Act]] (CETA), which became a nationally replicated program [[CETA Employment of Artists Nationally (1974-1981)|employing artists]] of all disciplines to do public service work for the city.

The Alvarado approach worked to integrate the arts and gardening, mirroring Asawa's own upbringing on a farm. Asawa believed in a hands-on experience for children, and followed the approach "learning by doing." Asawa believed in the benefit of children learning from professional artists, something she adopted from learning from practicing artists at [[Black Mountain College]]. Eighty-five percent of the program's budget went toward hiring professional artists and performers to instruct the students.<ref name="Asawa 1981 14–17"/> This was followed up in 1982 by building a public arts high school, the San Francisco School of the Arts,<ref name=ChristiesPress/> which was renamed the [[Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts]] in her honor in 2010.<ref name=romney>{{citation |last=Romney |first=Lee |title=Ruth Asawa, artist known for intricate wire sculptures, dies at 87 |newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |date=August 6, 2013 |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/et-la-cm-ruth-asawa-artist-known-for-crocheted-wire-sculptures-dies-at-87-20130806,0,3401233.story |access-date=August 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807134315/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/et-la-cm-ruth-asawa-artist-known-for-crocheted-wire-sculptures-dies-at-87-20130806,0,3401233.story |archive-date=August 7, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> Asawa would go on to serve on the California Arts Council, the [[National Endowment for the Arts]]{{cln|reason=The NEA is not a board, commission, or other collegial body; no one "serve[s] on" it.}} in 1976,<ref name="ruthasawa.com"/>{{vn}} and from 1989 to 1997 she served as a trustee of the [[Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]].<ref name="ruthasawa.com"/>{{vn}}