1929-1993
Works in the Collection
Biography
Vivian Browne was born in Laurel, Florida in 1929. She became a part of the Rutgers University faculty in 1970 as an instructor in the arts department, heading it from 1975 to 1978, and, in 1985 became the first African-American and the second woman to receive full professorship within that institution. She was named the College Art Association’s 1989 Distinguished Teacher of the Year. She was a member of the Heresies Collective and an activist in Soho where she was a co-founder of SoHo20 in 1970 – one of the first women’s art cooperatives in Manhattan. She was a long, faithful member of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Board. She served as a Fulbright panelist from 1990 to 1992 and was a juror for the NEA’s Arts Midwest in 1992. She was named a Distinguished Teacher of Studio Art of the Year by the College Art Association. In 1989, Vivian established a West Coast studio near the Kern River in Bakersfield, CA. Browne died in Manhattan, NY in 1993.