The McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car. Photo courtesy of DART Car

What do the worlds of motorsports and fine art have in common? According to entrepreneur Zoë Barry, art advisor Spring McManus and racecar driver Aurora Straus—the founders of a new initiative aimed at elevating women in these traditionally male-dominated fields—the answer is actually quite a lot. Their Driven Artist Racing Team (DART Car) initiative was born out of a shared frustration with the persistent lack of equality in their respective industries. “Unfortunately, only about 3 percent of venture capital dollars go to women every year,” Barry, CEO of digital health company ZappRx and fintech startup Zingeroo, told Observer. “If you think about the billions of dollars that are deployed in capital, they primarily go to male founders. That was always a very disappointing experience I had as a female founder.”

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Berry’s interest in motorsports led to a chance meeting with Straus, a Cold Spring, New York native who first got behind the wheel of a sports car at 13 and, by 19, had become the only professional teenage female........

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