Mark Lombard was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a BA in Psychology as a Natural Science in 1978.
After working as a medical therapist, Mark moved to Philadelphia in 1987 to serve as Admissions Officer and, subsequently, Director of Admissions at Temple University School of Dentistry. While at Temple Dental, Mark discovered the wonder of art by taking extracurricular coursework in art history and pursued mastery in the game of bridge.
Lombard moved to Texas with his favorite bridge partner and future husband, Dr. Mark Hupert, in 2003. Mark began serving as a hospice volunteer, bringing art postcards from museums in the D/FW Metroplex. Noticing that art triggered conversations that people yearned for but had little opportunity to initiate, Mark unwittingly practiced what is now known as
“therapeutic art.”
Working with Ms. Billie, a patient, he shared museum postcards to provide therapeutic engagement and improve her quality of life. Encouraged by her positive response, Mark began offering art sessions to other patients. While in Landmark Education’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program in 2010, Mark merged his passion for hospice volunteering with fine museum art and founded “For Love & Art: Sharing with Seniors. “His small team created partnerships with ten prestigious museums to grant usage rights to their imagery. A dozen hospices in the D/FW Metroplex received “Virtual Museum Art Books” at a Dallas Museum of Art ceremony where Zig Ziglar was the keynote speaker.
In January 2013, FOR LOVE & ART® achieved IRS nonprofit status. In March, the Texas/New Mexico Hospice Organization awarded Mark “Hospice Volunteer of the Year.” In December of that year, Mark married Dr. Mark in a quiet ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Lombard presided over FL&A as President until April of 2021 and currently serves as Founder and Volunteer. He still cherishes bringing artwork from partner museums (now numbering 31, spanning the globe) to cheer and intrigue hundreds of seniors in communal living. The virtual presentations are now referred to as “Celebrating the Art Experience.”
At For Love & Art’s 10th Anniversary gala in 2023, the Board of Directors and Leadership honored Mark with an extraordinary cut glass sculpture, “The Mark Lombard Award,” for excellence in therapeutic art, along with a commissioned portrait by noted Dallas artist Josh Hickman. Lombard lives in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas with his husband and two dogs.
