Artist Throughout the 1980s, Shalit created "lifecast" sculptures made from molds formed directly upon human faces and bodies. Her casts of five former United States presidents are in the collections of their respective presidential libraries. Other examples of her work are on display at the
United States Olympic Committee's training center in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Fogelson Library at the
College of Santa Fe (now
Santa Fe University of Art and Design), and the Jewish Guild for the Blind in New York City. She also created life casts for
Muhammad Ali,
Bill Gates,
Clint Eastwood,
Sting, civil rights leader
Rosa Parks, choreographer
Alvin Ailey,
Isaac Stern, sculptor
Louise Nevelson, prima ballerina
Natalia Makarova and the
14th Dalai Lama. In 1986, Shalit collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning author
Toni Morrison and
Gilbert Moses to design masks and costumes for Morrison’s play
Dreaming Emmett, directed by Mr. Moses. In 1994, Shalit and her lifecasting art were featured in the
Emmy Award-winning television documentary,
Willa: Behind The Mask. She was artist-in-residence at the College of Santa Fe from 1989 to 1994. In 1998, Shalit's exhibit "Incarcerated Women: A View From the Inside Out" was featured at the
National Museum for Women in the Arts in
Washington, DC. The installation displayed life-cast facial portraits of inmates from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center in
San Antonio, Texas.
Producer In 1985, Shalit produced James Lecesne's play
One Man Band off-Broadway. Shalit was the producer of the first anti-violence benefit performance of Eve Ensler's
The Vagina Monologues with
Whoopi Goldberg,
Susan Sarandon,
Winona Ryder,
Calista Flockhart,
Lily Tomlin and others. She also produced a 1997 reading of Eve Ensler's
Necessary Targets at the
Helen Hayes Theater Broadway starring
Meryl Streep,
Anjelica Huston, and
Cherry Jones and the landmark V-Day 2001 performance in
Madison Square Garden featuring
Oprah Winfrey,
Queen Latifah,
Glenn Close,
Claire Danes and many others. Shalit continued to produce the play in February 1998 in New York City, and during a second reading of the play at
Kennedy Center for then First Lady
Hillary Clinton starring
Natalie Portman and
Jena Malone. From 1999 to 2003 Shalit produced the play during the off-Broadway run at New York City's
Westside Theater and later served as
executive producer of the 2002
HBO film of the show. She was an executive producer of
Until the Violence Stops, a documentary film about
V-Day's 2002 activities. She co-produced the 2002 off-Broadway run of Ensler's
Necessary Targets, produced Carol Kaplan's play
Jocasta Rising at the
Artscape Theatre Centre in
Cape Town, South Africa in 2004, and was an associate producer of the 2004 Broadway revival of
August Wilson's ''
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'' starring Whoopi Goldberg.
Photographer Shalit's photos of Afghanistan, Rwanda and Israel have been published in the
Chicago Tribune,
The New York Times, the
International Herald Tribune,
Parade magazine,
Marie Claire magazine,
O, The Oprah Magazine, and distributed by the
Associated Press wire service.
Author and editor Her 1992 book
Lifecast: Behind the Mask () details her methods and experiences casting sculptures of the
Dalai Lama and other notable persons. Proceeds from the book benefitted the Touch Foundation, which sponsors "Please Touch" exhibits of work for the blind and visually impaired. In 2005, along with
Yoko Ono, Shalit edited the
HarperCollins book
Memories of John Lennon; it features intimate glimpses from those who knew John, including
Pete Townshend,
Sir Elton John, and
David Geffen, and artists who followed him such as
Bono,
Alicia Keys and
Carlos Santana. The book also contains photographs from
Annie Leibovitz. Shalit edited
Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female, a collection of essays and reminiscences by notable women including
Meryl Streep,
Maya Angelou, and
America Ferrera, that was published by
Hyperion in April 2006.
Social entrepreneur To bring economic advancement to women in post-trauma zones, Shalit has worked to create markets in the United States for products manufactured jointly by Palestinian and Israeli women, and by women survivors of the
Rwandan genocide. Shalit's company, Fair Winds Trading, became an importer of handmade goods from
Rwanda and partnered with
Macy's for the Rwanda Path to Peace project to market handwoven Rwandan baskets, including those made by
Janet Nkubana's organization Gahaya Links, in the United States, and produced hand-beaded gemstone and glass bracelets in partnership with
O, The Oprah Magazine. In 2015, Macy's and Rwanda Path to Peace celebrated a 10-year partnership. In 2010, Fair Winds Trading launched the Heart of Haiti line working with Macy's and the
Clinton Foundation and the
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. The line included handcrafted products made by Haitian artists and was part of an effort to help rebuild from the
2010 Haiti earthquake. Shalit organized a trip to Haiti where Macy's leaders, joined by
Martha Stewart and
Rachel Roy, met with local artisans. In 2010, Macy's was the biggest U.S. retailer selling handmade Haitian goods, followed by the West Elm and
Anthropologie chains. In 2011, Shalit co-founded the communications firm Road to Market, ltd where she develops global branding strategies and continues to work with social justice missions and worldwide movements. Shalit also co-founded an online platform for women designers called Maiden Nation. The site features work designed by Rachel Roy,
Lauren Bush, Yoko Ono,
Gloria Steinem and Chan Luu. When Shalit’s friend Anne Glauber was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2014, together they held an information-gathering meeting at the
Roosevelt Hotel in New York, where they met with Dr. Allyson Ocean of
New York-Presbyterian/
Weill Cornell Medicine, Kerri Kaplan of the
Lustgarten Foundation and others. The team developed
Let’s Win - an online community for sharing new science-driven treatments to help patients and families fight pancreatic cancer. Shalit is the co-founder and digital director of
Let’s Win. Shalit serves as President of the Board for Indigenous Ways, an advocacy organization based in New Mexico. She also is a team member at 18by.vote, a non-partisan youth-led organization developed to support teenage voter registration and voting.
Philanthropist and activist Shalit's Touch Foundation created an exhibit of touchable lifecasts of the faces of celebrities and other notable individuals, for the purpose of making those faces accessible to the blind and visually impaired, which toured American museums from 1990 to 2000, including the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in
Memphis, Tennessee. Shalit was a member of the
Board of Trustees at the
College of Santa Fe from 1990 to 1995. She co-founded
V-Day with Ensler and served as its first
executive director. V-day is a
non-profit organization that distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. During her time as executive director, Shalit traveled with Ensler on a "harrowing undercover journey" to chronicle the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan's fight against the
Taliban in 2002. More than 2,000 members of this clandestine network provide shelter, education and medical services to Afghan women and girls—all in defiance of the Taliban. Shalit served as a special advisor to the
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and The
United Nations Ethical Fashion Initiative. In 2007, Shalit joined the Board of Directors of the
Hadassah Foundation. She currently serves on the Board of the Israeli Palestinian Peace organization, American Friends of the Parents Circle, (Parents Circle Family Forum) and on the Advisory Board of Feminist.com. in 2014, Shalit was one of the first sponsors of
Women and Men as Allies, an initiative founded by Feminist.com in partnership with The Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University. ==Awards==