Biography
Leslie K. Brown is an independent curator, scholar, and educator. She recently earned her PhD in the History of Art & Architecture at Boston University and specializes in the history of photography, modern and contemporary art, and American and visual studies. A former curator at the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) in Boston, she holds an MA from the University of Texas at Austin. During her over seven year tenure at the PRC (2001-2009), she curated and oversaw over 40 exhibitions. Known for innovative offerings that focused on emerging artists and new ideas, the gallery program garnered consistently positive press under her guidance.
Brown's dissertation was completed in 2019 and is entitled "The Kodak Picture Spot Sign: American Photographic Viewing and Twentieth-Century Corporate Visual Culture." Brown has lectured on on this topic at the George Eastman Museum twice (2016 and 2021) as well as presented at the College Art Association conference as a part of the New York Public Library's session, "A Social Medium: Photography’s History of Sharing," Photography Network’s inaugural symposium "The Material and the Virtual in Photographic Histories" (2021); and the 2022 University Art Association of Canada Conference as a part of the panel "In Camera/Ex Camera: Devices, Tools, and Equipment in the History of Photography" (2022).
Brown has continued to work as a freelance curator and arts professional, before, during, and after her doctoral work. Most recently, she curated 13 Ways of Looking at Landscape: Larry Silver’s Connecticut Photographs for the Fairfield University art Museum (2022). Additionally, Brown has curated Traces: Daniel Ranalli, Cape Work 1987-2007, which was shown at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (2011) and Out of the Box: Photography Portfolios from the Permanent Collection (2009/ 2010), as the first guest curator of a new series at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Brown was also invited to participate in a collective exhibition selected by 65 Wellesley College participants, past and present, shown at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; her selected photographers for A Generous Medium: Photography at Wellesley 1972-2012 (2012) included Greg Heins, Timothy O’Sullivan, Carrie Mae Weems, and Abelardo Morell. At the invitation of the Canadian non-profit Magenta Foundation, Brown co-curated an exhibition of regional photographers with Michelle Lamunière, former Assistant Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, now Director of Special Projects and Auction at Goodman Taft. The resulting group show, Cultivated: New Photography from New England, was a part of the multi-day Flash Forward Festival held in Boston in May 2013.
Brown's various writing projects include essays for Sandi Haber Fifield's book, Between Planting and Picking (Charta, 2011); John Chervinsky's artist's book on his series "An Experiment in Perspective"; and Carol Golemboski's interactive artist's book for the Ipad on her "Psychometry" series. The latter won the IPPY award for Outstanding eBook Achievement and was one of 12 Outstanding Books of the Year from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2013.
Brown is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including grants from the Boston University Center for Humanities and the Women’s Guild and twice received the departmental Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award. She was a Finalist for the Joan and Stanford Alexander Award for Doctoral Research in the History of Photography from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as well as the Society of Photographic Education Award for Excellence in Historical, Critical and Theoretical Writing. Curatorially, she has also received commendation from the New England chapter of AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’art) for her exhibition Picture Show, which was also named one of the best shows in Boston in 2007.
Among other symposia, Brown has presented papers at the graduate student “Art History Symposium” jointly sponsored by the Frick Collection and the IFA/NYU as well as “Framing Time and Place: Repeats and Returns in Photography” at the University of Plymouth, UK. She has also presented at the BU Graduate Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture, later serving as the symposium coordinator for 2012's iteration, "See the Light." In addition, she has also presented on Professor Alan Wallach's "Rethinking the Hudson River School" panel for the 67th Annual Southeastern College Art Conference; "A Field Guide to the Kodak Picture Spot" at the 50th anniversary conference of the Society of Photographic Education; and the viewsheds of Frederic Edwin Church and Winslow Homer at the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) for their conference, "Poignant Prospects: Landscape and the Environment in American Visual Culture, 1750-1890."
As an adjunct instructor, Brown has taught at BU, College of the Holy Cross, Simmons University, and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2011/2012, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Wellesley College and taught courses in Modern and 19th-Century Art. Currently, she is teaching courses in US Documentary Photography, Contemporary Art, and Museums at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Lesley College of Art and Design, In addition to serving as a regularly invited speaker, panelist, and moderator, she has also served as an invited guest juror and reviewer for departmental critiques at colleges and universities; national portfolio review events and opportunities, including Photolucida and Fotofest; juried exhibitions at regional galleries and museums; and various fellowships and grants. Brown is a native of Rochester, NY and the product of a Kodak family.
Brown's dissertation was completed in 2019 and is entitled "The Kodak Picture Spot Sign: American Photographic Viewing and Twentieth-Century Corporate Visual Culture." Brown has lectured on on this topic at the George Eastman Museum twice (2016 and 2021) as well as presented at the College Art Association conference as a part of the New York Public Library's session, "A Social Medium: Photography’s History of Sharing," Photography Network’s inaugural symposium "The Material and the Virtual in Photographic Histories" (2021); and the 2022 University Art Association of Canada Conference as a part of the panel "In Camera/Ex Camera: Devices, Tools, and Equipment in the History of Photography" (2022).
Brown has continued to work as a freelance curator and arts professional, before, during, and after her doctoral work. Most recently, she curated 13 Ways of Looking at Landscape: Larry Silver’s Connecticut Photographs for the Fairfield University art Museum (2022). Additionally, Brown has curated Traces: Daniel Ranalli, Cape Work 1987-2007, which was shown at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (2011) and Out of the Box: Photography Portfolios from the Permanent Collection (2009/ 2010), as the first guest curator of a new series at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Brown was also invited to participate in a collective exhibition selected by 65 Wellesley College participants, past and present, shown at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; her selected photographers for A Generous Medium: Photography at Wellesley 1972-2012 (2012) included Greg Heins, Timothy O’Sullivan, Carrie Mae Weems, and Abelardo Morell. At the invitation of the Canadian non-profit Magenta Foundation, Brown co-curated an exhibition of regional photographers with Michelle Lamunière, former Assistant Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, now Director of Special Projects and Auction at Goodman Taft. The resulting group show, Cultivated: New Photography from New England, was a part of the multi-day Flash Forward Festival held in Boston in May 2013.
Brown's various writing projects include essays for Sandi Haber Fifield's book, Between Planting and Picking (Charta, 2011); John Chervinsky's artist's book on his series "An Experiment in Perspective"; and Carol Golemboski's interactive artist's book for the Ipad on her "Psychometry" series. The latter won the IPPY award for Outstanding eBook Achievement and was one of 12 Outstanding Books of the Year from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2013.
Brown is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including grants from the Boston University Center for Humanities and the Women’s Guild and twice received the departmental Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award. She was a Finalist for the Joan and Stanford Alexander Award for Doctoral Research in the History of Photography from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as well as the Society of Photographic Education Award for Excellence in Historical, Critical and Theoretical Writing. Curatorially, she has also received commendation from the New England chapter of AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’art) for her exhibition Picture Show, which was also named one of the best shows in Boston in 2007.
Among other symposia, Brown has presented papers at the graduate student “Art History Symposium” jointly sponsored by the Frick Collection and the IFA/NYU as well as “Framing Time and Place: Repeats and Returns in Photography” at the University of Plymouth, UK. She has also presented at the BU Graduate Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture, later serving as the symposium coordinator for 2012's iteration, "See the Light." In addition, she has also presented on Professor Alan Wallach's "Rethinking the Hudson River School" panel for the 67th Annual Southeastern College Art Conference; "A Field Guide to the Kodak Picture Spot" at the 50th anniversary conference of the Society of Photographic Education; and the viewsheds of Frederic Edwin Church and Winslow Homer at the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) for their conference, "Poignant Prospects: Landscape and the Environment in American Visual Culture, 1750-1890."
As an adjunct instructor, Brown has taught at BU, College of the Holy Cross, Simmons University, and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2011/2012, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Wellesley College and taught courses in Modern and 19th-Century Art. Currently, she is teaching courses in US Documentary Photography, Contemporary Art, and Museums at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Lesley College of Art and Design, In addition to serving as a regularly invited speaker, panelist, and moderator, she has also served as an invited guest juror and reviewer for departmental critiques at colleges and universities; national portfolio review events and opportunities, including Photolucida and Fotofest; juried exhibitions at regional galleries and museums; and various fellowships and grants. Brown is a native of Rochester, NY and the product of a Kodak family.
