RXART - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Chris Salgardo is an entrepreneur, men's lifestyle expert, philanthropist, and author. As the former president of Kiehl's Since 1851 and author of MANMADE: The Essential Skincare and Grooming Reference for Every Man, he became known as the face of men's skincare and grooming and in 2011 received the Brand Genius Award from ADWEEK. Chris is the founder of Lightning Bolt Industry, the parent company of The Majestic Man and ATWATER, the pioneering new men's skincare company dedicated to helping men put their best face forward. Chris has accomplished a great deal in his philanthropic commitments and has been honored by charitable organizations for his philanthropic work around the world, including receiving the RxART Innovation Award at the 2017 RxART PARTY. In 2010, he created LifeRide, a celebrity ride around the U.S. to raise funds and awareness in the fight against AIDS, which raised over $2 million. Furthermore, through his work as a RxART board member, Chris was able to underwrite José Parlá's restoration of the Incarnation Children's Center in New York City, the only center of its kind that provided housing and care for children living with HIV. Chris lives in Upstate New York, where he rides his motorcycle and skateboards, is an avid archer, plays pinball, and spoils his two cats, Finn and Bacco.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board Member / SUPPORT
David is the former President & CEO of PetSmart, the largest US retailer of pet food, supplies, and services. He joined PetSmart in October, 2000, as senior vice president of Services, Strategic Planning and Business Development and was in multiple senior leadership positions over the next eleven years. In June 2013, he was named chief executive officer and in April 2014 he was named president and chief executive officer. David led the strategic review process of PetSmart in 2014, resulting in the sale of PetSmart to BC Partners for $8.7B, representing the highest equity valuation in the history of the company and the largest retail LBO in US history. David stepped down as CEO in March, 2015 upon the closing of the transaction.
David and his wife Dawn are avid collectors of contemporary art. David is the Vice Chair of the Phoenix Art Musuem board and also serves on both the National Committee and the Paintings and Sculpture Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Additionally, he currently serves on the board of directors for Casey's General Stores, The Michaels Companies, Dogtopia Enterprises, and Phoenix Children's Hospital.
David has a BA in Government, Magna Cum Laude, from Cornell University and an MBA from The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President
- Vice President of Network Integration
David Wyman is President of The Rogosin Institute and Vice President of Network Integration at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The Rogosin Institute is a nationally recognized leader in providing innovative and comprehensive kidney care across New York City. The Rogosin Institute operates 10 dialysis centers across NYC and is the largest provider of in-home dialysis therapies in New York. NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation's most comprehensive, integrated academic health care systems, dedicated to providing the highest quality, most compassionate care to the New York metropolitan area, nationally, and throughout the globe. In collaboration with two world-class medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian is consistently recognized as a leader in medical education, groundbreaking research, and innovative, patient-centered clinical care.
Previously, David served as President and CEO of Gracie Square Hospital. There, he successfully led Gracie Square's redevelopment, revitalization, and alignment with NewYork-Presbyterian.
David brings over 25 years of expertise in healthcare operations and management, particularly in the areas of change management, strategy, and integration.
David sits on the Boards of STEAMpark, the National Association of Behavioral Healthcare, and the Advisory Council of LiLy Legacies. He holds a MPA from New York University and a BS from the University of Florida.
David is an art collector and has been involved with RxART for over 15 years. David lives in New Jersey and has three college-aged daughters.
Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore, MD) is a Brooklyn, New York-based artist whose critically admired work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. His multidisciplinary practice engages the ways in which individuals' ideals, aspirations, and personae become attached to specific objects, colors, textures, symbols, and ideologies. His work probes the influence of popular culture on the formation of self-image, and the relationship between man and monument as they coexist and embody one another. Adams is also deeply immersed in questions of how Black experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. Most notably in his Floater series, he portrays Black people at leisure, positing that respite itself is a political act when embraced by Black communities. The radicality of this position has materialized in Adams' work across his Deconstruction Worker, Figure in the Urban Landscape, and Beauty World series.
Adams received his MFA from Columbia University and BFA from Pratt Institute. He is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program and was the recipient of Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, a Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. Adams was commissioned by RxART in 2020 to create the uplifting imagery that was installed throughout the Pediatric Emergency Department Treatment Rooms at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem. Some of his "floaters" imagery also graces the cover and sticker spread of Between the Lines: An RxART Coloring Book by Contemporary Artists - Volume 8.
The artist's work will be the subject of Derrick Adams: LOOKS at the Cleveland Art Museum (2021-2022) and has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions such as The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2021); SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, Savannah (2020-2021); Hudson River Museum, Yonkers (2020); Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (2020); The Gallery in Baltimore City Hall (2019); and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2018). The artist has mounted public installations commissioned by the Milwaukee Museum of Art, On Site: Derrick Adams, a multimedia wall mural and sculptural installation (2021-ongoing), and through MTA Arts & Design at the Nostrand Avenue LIRR Station, Brooklyn (2020-ongoing. His work has been featured in notable group exhibitions, including at the Longlati Foundation, Shanghai (2021-2022), Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair, Kent State University Museum (2021-2022); Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (2020), now at the Seattle Art Museum (2021); Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati (2019), traveled to Washington State History Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Tacoma (2019-2020); and Performa, New York (2015, 2013, 2005). His art resides in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Birmingham Museum of Art, among many others. He has recently established an artist program and residency in his hometown of Baltimore called The Last Resort.
RxART Founder and President, Diane Brown, has forged a professional path that draws equally from her professional beginnings as a Pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin and from her career as a New York-based gallerist, art dealer, and consultant. Brown has been active in the field of contemporary art since 1973; from 1976-1982, she owned and operated the Diane Brown Gallery in Washington DC and New York City (1983-1992). These spaces played host to some of the most significant artists of the time and that, in turn, has set the standard for the artistic aims of RxART; a belief in art's ability to not only transcend but transform its settings and viewers. Brown also worked as a private dealer, a consultant to private collectors for collection development and management, the curator of a corporate photography collection in New York City, and as an adjunct professor in Arts Administration at New York University. She founded RxART in 2000 and RxART Canada in 2015.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Board
Glori Cohen is an art advisor based in New York City. She works with an international roster of private clients, helping to enrich major collections and establish new ones. An avid collector and investor, Glori encourages her clients to consider emerging art as well as strategic blue-chip.
In addition to her role as a Board Member of RxART, Glori is on the Producers Council of the New Museum and the Athena Center Leadership Council of Barnard College. A graduate from Pratt, Cohen studied extensively at New York University and the International Center of Photography. Glori lives in Manhattan with her husband and children.
Job Titles:
- Development Associate
- Development Associate / SUPPORT
Hannah Kolb is a development associate for RxART. She is passionate about working in the intersection of arts and health, and about supporting and uplifting arts programming that positively impacts health and well-being. She earned her master's degree in arts administration from Baruch College, and a bachelor's in English and sociology from Skidmore College. She has extensive prior experience in community arts settings, nonprofit administration, and arts education. She believes in the arts' endless capacity for healing and transformation and is thrilled to contribute to RxART's mission.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder and Co - CEO of FIGS
Heather Hasson is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FIGS, a clothing brand revolutionizing the medical apparel industry while also maintaining a socially conscious business. FIGS is determined to provide the most technically advanced, comfortable and beautifully designed scrubs. Prior to launching FIGS in 2013, Hasson started her first company at the age of 22. A serial entrepreneur, she ran a high-end bag line in Italy for 7 years before creating FIGS. FIGS also operates the Threads for Threads initiative, which donates sets of scrubs to countries with limited access to medical apparel and accessories, helping to outfit healthcare workers in need and reduce hospital-acquired infection with their 100% anti-microbial fabric. In 2021, RxART worked with Heather and FIGS to introduce Urs Fischer-designed FIGS PJs to inpatients at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Heather was Fast Company's 9th Most Innovative Company for Branding (2019), Inc. 500's 21st Fastest Growing Company in the U.S. (2018), and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs at Goldman Sachs' Builders and Innovators Summit (2018). She won the Emerging Entrepreneur award at the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for the Greater Los Angeles Region (2018), raised the 4th largest round for a female-founded company (2017), is a founding member of Inc. Masters and is part of LinkedIn's 2016 Next Wave.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
As deputy director at RxART, Lindsey Cash works to advance the organization's growth, fundraising, and strategic direction, among other endeavors. Her extensive background in nonprofit and arts management spans both the visual and performing art worlds, having previously served as director of strategic initiatives at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the oldest performing arts institution in the United States. Lindsey also worked for over seven years in the director's office of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and her additional professional experience includes positions with private collections, auction houses, and community arts organizations. She holds an MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby's Institute of Art as well as a BA in Humanities from the University of Colorado. Lindsey is deeply inspired by RxART's mission and the organization's unique capacity to make art accessible to communities across the country, particularly during some of life's most challenging moments.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Michael Laven has had a long career in both Silicon Valley and Europe as a high-technology entrepreneur, investor, board member and manager. He has worked with leading venture capital investors to create, build, and lead high-technology companies. Mr. Laven has taken part in multiple IPOs, financings, acquisitions and corporate restructurings and has extensive experience working with small start-up companies.
Mr. Laven has a B.A. in Anthropology from Wesleyan University, a M.A. in International Affairs from The School for International Training and a M.Ed. from Harvard University. He lives in London and San Francisco with his wife Rita and has two grown children in the New York area.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder of Magazzino Italian Art
Nancy Olnick is Co-Founder of Magazzino Italian Art, a nonprofit museum located in Cold Spring, NY. Its mission is to spread awareness and foster discussion of Post War and Contemporary Italian Art in the U.S. Nancy has been a board member of the American Jewish Committee Women's Leadership Council for over 30 years, a board member of the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, a board member of the American Craft Museum as well as a member of the Acquisitions Committee of the Israel Museum.
She holds a BA from Barnard College, NY and an MBA from the University of Arizona. Born and raised in New York City, she continues to live between NYC and Garrison, NY with her husband Giorgio Spanu. She has 3 grown children Eve, Robert and Stella.
Neil Blumenthal loves helping people see. Determined to transform the eyewear industry, Neil and three friends launched Warby Parker in 2010. Prior to Warby Parker, Neil had been the Director of VisionSpring, a non-profit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own business selling affordable eyeglasses in developing countries. Neil was recently recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Rob Pruitt's (b. Washington, D.C., 1964) work is rooted in a pop sensibility and a playful critique of art world structures. His conceptual projects have included performance-based artworks like his recent Art Awards, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2009, 2010) and modeled after Hollywood awards ceremonies, as well as simple gestures that promote possibilities for creativity in everyday life, as demonstrated in the series 101 Art Ideas You Can Do Yourself (2001). From his glittering paintings of panda bears and sculptural formations of blue jeans to his operative flea markets, Pruitt's work is always characterized by an incisive humor and exuberant visual flair. His recent work, "The Andy Monument", a tribute to Warhol, is permanently installed at Union Square.
Upcoming solo exhibitions of Pruitt's work include Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen. Institutions that have organized solo presentations of his work include Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany (2012), Dallas Contemporary (2011), American Academy in Rome (2008), and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2001). He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including Greater New York, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City (2000); Post-POP, Post-PUNK, Museum of Contemporary Art, Washington, D.C. (2000); Protest and Survive, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2000); Vantage Point, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2001); The Americans New Art, Barbican Gallery, London (2001); Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum (2002); Trade, White Columns, New York (2005);Seeing Double, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2005); General Ideas: Rethinking Conceptual Art 1987-2005, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2005); The Inside Game, Portland Art Center (2006); The Station, Art Basel Miami (2008), Mapping the Studio, Palazzo Grassi (2009); and Pop Life: Art in a Material World, Tate Modern, London (2009).
Sara Robertson manages the daily operations for RxART. She joined the team with a passion for RxART's mission, believing in the power of art to inspire and support healing in health care settings. Sara has over 6 years of experience working in the New York City art world, working formerly for Sophie Macpherson Ltd., art/tech start-up Meural, and Phillips Auction House. She earned her MA in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art, where she wrote her thesis on hospital art collections and her BA in Art History from Trinity University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder of PillPack
TJ Parker is the Co-Founder of PillPack. He is a second generation pharmacist and holds a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. TJ has been recognized for his pioneering leadership in healthcare and pharmacy by Forbes, INC Magazine, Fast Company, TIME, the New Hampshire Board of Pharmacy, and the New England Venture Capital Association, among other organizations. As Co-Founder of PillPack, TJ raised nearly $200M in financing, grew the company to more than 1200 employees, and successfully sold the business to Amazon in 2018. Today, he continues to be focused on making the process of managing medications as simple and convenient as possible for customers.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board