Rick Kinsel

Rick Alan Kinsel is an American nonprofit executive based in New York and Honolulu.

A leader in arts management, public-private partnerships, and the creation of mission-based programming and exhibitions.

He is known for his leadership with the Vilcek Foundation, for developing multi-sector partnerships for Coty Inc. and for his work with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In addition to his full-time roles with these organizations, he has been an important member of the arts, historic preservation, and philanthropic communities in New York and Hawaii, known for his curatorial insight and patronage for groundbreaking exhibitions and programs.

Kinsel's first historic preservation project was the Vilcek Foundation's headquarters at 167 East 73rd Street, a Beaux Arts–style carriage house designed by George L. Amoroux and built in 1903–1904; Under Kinsel's leadership, architects, contractors, and utilities teams worked to preserve the facade and character of the original building while transforming it into a functional office and cultural center for the Vilcek Foundation and guests.

Kinsel oversaw the renovation of the Vilcek Foundation's headquarters at 21 East 70th Street with the Architecture Research Office, working to unite the 1919 building and its characteristic features with updates made by the previous owners in the 1960s.

In 2021, the building was honored by the American Institute of Architects at the AIA Interior Architecture Awards.

Kinsel was born in Brookville, Ohio, on December 14, 1966.

He grew up traveling to historic sites and museums throughout the country with his parents, who were schoolteachers.

Kinsel credited seeing the King Tut exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1977 with sparking a lifelong interest in the arts, history, and culture.

Kinsel graduated from Brookville High School in Brookville, Ohio.

He first attended Sinclair Community College, where he earned his associate degree, and then attended The Ohio State University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in art history.

Kinsel began his career at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1989, working with the museum through 1996.

It was at the museum that he first met Marica Vilcek, who would become a trusted mentor as Kinsel developed in his career.

As cataloguer in charge of acquisitions at the museum, he was responsible for the accessioning of all objects acquired by the museum (more than 4,000 objects per year).

Kinsel was director of cultural affairs for Coty Inc. in New York from 1997 to 2003.

At Coty, he managed cultural and educational programs for the corporation and its global subsidiaries from 1997 to 2003.

His first project with Coty was to build and establish institutional art collections for the organization's corporate offices in New York, Paris, London, and Moscow.

He oversaw multiple important cultural initiatives led by Coty, including the creation of an annual design award; the development of a scholarship fund to support students at Parsons School of Design in New York; and the development of an institutional partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) whereby Coty created specialized personal care products to support the health of scientists aboard the International Space Station.

Throughout his career, Kinsel would continue his education, completing his Master of Arts in the History of the Decorative Arts & Design and Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in 1999, and completing Education in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management at Harvard Business School in 2010.

Kinsel's master's thesis for the Bard Graduate Center, The Designs of the House of Coty highlights the cultural, social, and production history of designs for Coty; published in 1999, the thesis is an important archive at the intersection of fashion, cosmetics, global trade, decorative arts, and marketing.

His contributions as a member of the International Perfume Bottles Association were acknowledged by authors Roulhac Toledano and Elizabeth Coty in their book, Francois Coty: Fragrance, Power, Money.

During his tenure as director of cultural affairs for Coty, he presented the inaugural lecture with the Art Glass Forum, New York: A Unique Collaboration Between Business and the Arts: Coty, Lalique and Baccarat.

When Marica and Jan Vilcek established the Vilcek Foundation in 2000, Kinsel was appointed a member of the board of trustees and was trusted to shape the foundation's work, a role he took on in earnest in 2003 as executive director.

Since 2000, Kinsel has worked to conceptualize and administer the philanthropic and exhibitions programs of the Vilcek Foundation.

Kinsel has led the development and overseen the curation of all exhibitions for the Vilcek Foundation since the foundation opened its first headquarters on East 73rd Street in New York in 2007.

Exhibitions range from works by living immigrant artists including Brian Doan, Nari Ward, and Il Lee; to photographs and memorabilia commemorating immigrant contributions to the ABC hit series, Lost; to masterpieces of American modernism by Ralston Crawford, Georgia O'Keeffe, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley; and Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery.

In addition to his work with the Vilcek Foundation, Kinsel has curated exhibitions and supported the development of arts initiatives across theater, visual arts, filmmaking, and music, and has supported programs in historic preservation.

Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District honored the Vilcek Foundation with an award in a ceremony on March 18, 2008.

In 2016 he was appointed president of the foundation; as such, he leads and oversees all aspects of the foundation's operations and programs and the organization's institutional and creative partnerships.

This includes the foundation's prizes program, which has expanded and grown more diverse in the number and range of prizes awarded to immigrant professionals in the United States under his management.

He has led the foundation's philanthropic and grantmaking initiatives, as well as the development of an archive to catalog the work of the foundation and its founders' legacy in biomedical science, the arts, and philanthropy.

Under Kinsel's leadership, the Vilcek Foundation has grown from a small private operating foundation to a powerful leader in philanthropy, responsible for raising awareness of the importance of immigration for a robust society, and serving as a world-class leader in the arts.

Kinsel is an avid historic preservationist, and has been involved in the study and practice of preservation of buildings in New York and in Hawaii.

In December 2020, he purchased the Detweiler House, designed by architect Walter Booser "Chip" Detweiler, on Round Top Drive in the Makiki Heights neighborhood of Honolulu.

He worked to restore the house's architectural structure and interiors to Detweiler's original designs.

The Detweiler House was added to Hawaii's historic register in 2023.

Kinsel's restoration of the Detweiler House was honored as an "Editor's Pick" of The Architect's Newspaper's "2023 Best of Design Awards", and profiled in HILuxury Magazine.

Kinsel has also provided marketing and management counsel to such organizations as the Greentree Foundation (Mrs. John Hay Whitney Estate) and the Puerta Vallarta Arts Festival in Mexico.

He also advised the New York State attorney general's office on legal and ethical issues related to the treatment and repatriation of confiscated art objects.