The Shelley and Donald Rubin Exhibition Series

The Shelley and Donald Rubin Exhibition Series was established in 2013 through a generous gift from Shelley and Donald J. Rubin, a 1956 Oglethorpe alumnus, to support exhibitions at the OU Museum of Art, as well as arts-related curricular programs complementing each exhibition of the series. In the future, this program is envisioned to encourage and support new courses, lectures, online learning, and other innovative approaches.

In May 2013, Mr. Rubin was presented with an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University, and the South Gallery of the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art was renamed The Shelley and Donald Rubin Gallery in their honor.

Donald Rubin in 1956, his senior year at Oglethorpe.

Donald J. Rubin, a 1956 Oglethorpe alumnus, is the founder of MultiPlan, Inc., a major general service PPO health provider. Now retired, Mr. Rubin is a generous philanthropist and avid arts advocate. He and his wife, Shelley, founded The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, a family foundation based in New York City that began operation in 1995, and focuses on giving to arts and culture, health and human services, and civil liberty and social justice primarily in the Himalayan region and the New York City metropolitan area.

The Rubins established the Rubin Museum of Art (New York), where Mr. Rubin currently serves as the co-chair of the Board of Trustees. The Rubins started collecting Himalayan art in the early 1980s and amassed a significant collection that became the core of the museum’s holdings. Mr. Rubin initiated the development of the Himalayan Art Resources website to catalog Himalayan and Tibetan art online from collections around the world, as well as the Labor Arts Project to gather, identify, and display examples of the cultural and artistic history of American working people and to celebrate the trade union movement’s contributions to that history.

A member of the Global Philanthropists Circle, Mr. Rubin has demonstrated a commitment to philanthropy throughout his life. Mr. and Mrs. Rubin have given generously to support the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, including a record donation to the endowment in 2013 and numerous direct gifts to its permanent collection throughout the years. The Rubins have loaned artwork from their extensive personal collection for numerous OUMA exhibitions.