Lisa Coscino, Founder

Coscino’s career in the arts includes working with luminaries, clients and change makers in multiple art mediums. Among her accomplishments is the re-launch and rebrand of New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU). Completed in 2015, the Silicon Valley museum was transformed from a small and quaint local museum to a cultural oasis in the town of Los Gatos. During her more than four and half year tenure as Executive Director, she presented more than 50 exhibitions, raised over $2.5 million and, most importantly, launched a museum that engages both an experienced museum audience as well as a new millennium of museum-goers through insightful and comprehensive exhibitions that are plugged into current issues, conflicts and ideas. In her recent role at the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design, Coscino successfully established a vision for greater organizational prominence, reach, and impact while amplifying and integrating the School’s mission across departments as a valuable community resource and premier Art and Design School.

Coscino’s career is focused on arts education and the role of art as an instrument of change. Coscino was responsible for driving the mission of inclusion and the power of art to move people to action, curating art into fundraising strategies for non-profits, and is responsible for helping raise over $4.5 million for the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco. Coscino's belief that art can change the world by inspiring action, telling tough truths and creating coalitions has led her to working on social justice projects along side musicians such as Brandon Boyd of Incubus and with diverse partners such as collector Cheech Marin, the Grammy Museum, The Woody Guthrie Center, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, NASA, the Smithsonian, and Blue Ocean Film Festival. Through her curatorial efforts, she has championed broad topics such as single use plastics in the ocean, marine mammal conservation, historic preservation, Latinx arts, youth arts, and Queer Ecologies.

In 2020, Lisa curated The Violins of Hope: A Journey of Heroism, Healing and Humanity, showcasing 26 violins that were played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. In this exhibition, stories of the Bay Area’s hard-fought campaigns on human rights, injustice and discrimination were told side by side with stories of survival of the violins and the power of music to console, resist, and unite. Most recently, Coscino has collaborated with OXY Arts to create OXY Live! This conversation series presents a diverse lineup of cultural luminaries at the forefront of their fields for thought-provoking conversations, hosted by acclaimed cultural curator and interlocutor, Paul Holdengraber. Topics range from social justice and Indigenous wisdom to the intersection of technology and the arts. Partnering with institutions such as the Ford Foundation, ONE Archives and REDCAT, the conversations are open to the public at no cost, inviting diverse communities to come together to explore ideas and find inspiration.

Before transitioning to the non-profit world, Coscino was the owner of the Lisa Coscino Gallery. The Gallery featured the work of emerging and mid-career artists from across the United States, specializing in Latino artists living and working in California. In addition, the Gallery exhibited the work of a number of established artists, such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Sol Lewitt, Carl Andre, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, and Richard Tuttle.

Coscino started her career at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, worked at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston and served as the Director of the Jan Turner Gallery in West Hollywood.

Lisa earned her AB (Advanced Bachelor) in psychology from Occidental College with minors in both Art History and Religious Studies. She is a member of ARTTABLE and serves on the Advisory Board of New Museum Los Gatos. She is a Trustee of Occidental College where she was brought on to liaise the College with the Los Angeles arts community to strengthen alliances. She also serves as the Chair of the Student Life and Enrollment Management Committee and serves on the DEIJ Committee, having received extensive training on equity, justice, access, and inclusion. Coscino is also a member of Chief, a private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders.