24/09/2026
Celebrating the life of Ivy Jeanne Brown
On Saturday 19th September 2026, our dear colleague and friend Ivy Jeanne Brown passed away. As we mourn her, we also want to celebrate a life devoted to opening doors: for artists, for her neighbours and for all of us who were welcomed through hers. She was Founder and Owner of the Ivy Brown Gallery in New York City's Meatpacking District, co-chair of AWAD's New York / Tri-State Chapter, a member of the AWAD Board and a former Board Member of the Meatpacking District Management Association (BID).
In his tribute, Ivy's husband David K. Brown wrote a line that will resonate with anyone who knew her: "thank you for making me a far better person today than the one you met…" She had an abundance of gratitude and perspective, and rose above extraordinary health challenges with a grace that made the rest of us reconsider our own worries.
Ivy was born in Queens, partly raised in England and studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 1985, she moved into a loft in the triangle building at 675 Hudson Street, long before the Meatpacking District became what it is today. For the next four decades she lived, as she liked to put it, 'in the middle of the road', working first in the commercial arts, representing photographers, stylists and makeup artists. She became a fixture of the district, often seen walking her dogs, and the local sanitation crew were fiercely protective of her.
In September 2000, a Marc Jacobs billboard that she detested went up on the roof of her building. She asked a young British street artist acquaintance called Banksy if he'd like to do something about it. She handed him the keys and left the rest to him. This story made the press only earlier this year, when she told the New York Times, "I just trusted him to make it something cool."
In 2001, in response to 9/11 and her commitment to opening doors in the community, Ivy founded the Ivy Brown Gallery in the front portion of her apartment. She brought her experience from the commercial arts world to the fine art arena, combining exhibitions with performance, poetry and communal dinners, and curated exhibitions across New York City – for example The Watermark in Brooklyn Heights. She took particular pride in championing emerging artists, often with a focus on those working in three dimensions.
For AWAD, her loft gallery became the unofficial HQ of the New York / Tri-State Chapter. Whether we gathered for a daytime talk or an evening celebration, there was always an abundance of nibbles and her signature homemade fruit tea. It was during one daytime professional development workshop that she devised the gallery’s strapline, “Bringing unusual art to the people.”
Click here to read the full message celebrating Ivy from our founder and CEO Susan J. Mumford: https://womenartdealers.org/celebrating-the-life-of-ivy-jeanne-brown/
