Joanna Semel Rose was an American art patron and collector, publisher, philanthropist, and connector, whose salons and dinners in her New York home brought together an international group of intellectuals, artists, authors and educators.

[1] For many decades the chairman of the board of Partisan Review magazine, she became known to the wider public from an award-winning exhibition of early American patchwork quilts from her collection that was mounted in honor of her 80th birthday.

She was a founding board member of Poets & Writers, the National Dance Institute, the Paper Bag Players, the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and The American Friends of St Hilda's.

Joanna S. Rose was a renowned collector who over her lifetime established significant collections across a wide array of subjects including Judaica, Pre-Columbian art, oriental rugs, paintings, Chinese opera gowns, Judith Leiber minaudières, ammonite fossils, and Christian Lacroix couture.

[6] With more than 25,000 visitors coming from around the world for the five day installation, the exhibition received massive press coverage, won multiple awards and resulted in a book that Vogue magazine described as "a perfect coffee-table topper that spans three centuries and includes a foreword by Martha Stewart."

[11] Events with titles such as The Feast of the Pheasant and Talleyrand Entertains Metternich at the Congress of Vienna brought together university presidents, international diplomats, award-winning writers and renowned artists.

A film produced in honor of Joanna S. Rose and her husband, Daniel, featured contributions from, among other friends, Fareed Zakaria, Neil de Grasse Tyson, and Andre Soltner.