Movers and Shapers

Lisa Roberts
Antiquesofthefuture.com

You can’t step into any modern design arena without bumping into Lisa Roberts. A PMA trustee who helped underwrite the Museum’s new modern-design wing, she’s long been an active member of Collab, which raises money for the modern and contemporary design collection and sponsors education programs. She founded Collab’s 15-year-old college design competition, has vice-chaired the National Design Awards, and sits on the board of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Roberts (daughter of Ralph, sister of Brian) is also a trained architect-turned-product-designer of mostly museum-store collectibles, and one of the first and most generous supporters of DesignPhiladelphia, which she considers a vital tool in building Philly’s design reputation. “Philadelphia has a tremendous number of schools and design departments, but very few jobs in design professions,” she says.

Best known for: Her book Antiques of the Future, a carefully curated collection of products from the past 25 years that Roberts says will be museum-quality valuables when they go out of production.

What she’s doing this year: Underwriting part of Minima’s Pop-Up Neighborhood, which she describes as “interesting and relevant.”