“Art is meant to be shared, not coveted,” says Chelsea Mehra. Recently, the young collector and founder of venture capital firm RUCA Capital has taken that sentiment further than most—in 2023, she established the RUCA Foundation, an arts organization and private museum.
Mehra, who grew up just outside of Washington, DC, chose historic Georgetown to house the fledgling institution, which showcases works from her expansive contemporary collection and will soon be made accessible to the public. These days, as the foundation’s executive director, she spearheads programming efforts and the collection’s curation.
Strolling through Mehra’s Art Deco apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park, one finds works by Robert Longo, Issy Wood, and Ed Ruscha. An Anna Weyant hangs in the 30-year-old’s dining room. She tells me, offhandedly, that she won it in a bet with friends at the Armory Show. “My focus has always been to support today’s most compelling living artists,” she says. “I prefer to know that my patronage is directly impacting an artist during their lifetime.”
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