by Susan J. Mumford, AWAD Founder + CEO
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.” Reading those words on her Instagram account today brings back the bittersweet memory of the delight she experienced when finding a way to explain her program to the world. Over the years, members also got to know her dogs, Buster, Keaton and Sasha, and Ivy would brief newcomers on how not to get them too excited.
Meatpacking District BID President Jeffrey LeFrancois aptly described Ivy “a petite giant”, and indeed, her presence was never confined to the gallery’s walls. As chapter co-chair, she was at practically every AWAD gathering, whether at another member’s gallery, an art fair or around a dinner table. She was always fully engaged, listening intently to a tour guide, looking closely at the work or deep in conversation with fellow members. She also had a way of steering each occasion so that each and every person felt like they belonged. In photograph after photograph she is beaming, pleased as punch to be among colleagues.
Last year, she threw a party to celebrate 40 years at the loft, and people came from all over to celebrate her and the extraordinary space she had created. Earlier this year, Ivy began preparing the gallery’s next chapter at 7 Weehawken Street in the West Village. That she was planning this move while in and out of rehab tells you everything about her tenacity and dedication.
Ivy asked her husband to present the first exhibition that she had planned at the new space. David will honour that wish, presenting what will poignantly be her final exhibition, presenting art by Elizabeth Jordan. She works primarily in sculpture and uses multiple materials to produce unique, organic forms. Long-standing AWAD Member and Board Member MK Semos, alongside her husband and business partner Hugo Garcia Urrutia, will provide support with the installation. They will not be alone: members including Robin Lawson, Robinson Holloway and others are offering whatever support they can, and we expect a strong AWAD presence at the show. Full details will be shared as they are confirmed.
Many of you have already shared memories of Ivy online and in messages to us. Thank you. It is a measure of how many lives she touched. Our thoughts are with David, Ivy’s family, artists and friends. We celebrate her eye, wit, collegiality, warmth and fierceness. How lucky we are to have known her – long may she inspire us to be the best version of ourselves, relishing every moment with gratitude in this precious life.
