She attended schools in Kansas City, Missouri before enrolling and receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in education at Southern College.
Living in an old mud adobe “Transformed Sonoran corner row house” at 261 North Court Street, (today part of the National Register of Historic Places El Presidio Historic District), Newby converted part of the building into an art center which opened on November 1, 1948.
During the following three years, Newby mounted significant exhibitions, legitimizing and supporting the careers of new artists in Post WWII Tucson and Arizona.
[7] Art critic Byrd Stanley writing in 1952 notes, “As an educator, she always took a special interest in talent not yet recognized by the general public and her interest in people was always more important than practical questions of who could pay gallery fees when they were due or whose work would sell fastest.”[8] Newby invited a panel of five curators and artists to participate in the selection of art to be exhibited.
But they all want to carry on Ruby's dream for Tucson as an arts community and they all (though some of them like Pricilla Peirce of the Print Room, have their own galleries want 261 to continue).
[14] In February 1963 Hallie Matlock announced that she would reopen the 261 Gallery with an exhibition of work by Bruce Mcgrew on March 3.
[16] The 261 Gallery and Ruby Warren Newby's patronage was an important period in Tucson's post-WWII artistic development, growth, and popularization of modern art in Southern Arizona.
The creation of a non-profit cooperative gallery allowed the presentation of artwork that was focused on creative development and less on salability.
Although the existence of the gallery was brief it hosted over 30 shows and created a stage to highlight Avant-garde young artists and push ideas of art and creativity.
The creation of the gallery and its importance to the culture of the Southwest was featured on the international radio program Voice of America, on April 22, 1952.