David & Judith Brown Endowed Scholarship

The David & Judith Brown Endowed Scholarship was established in 2000 by David and Judith Brown to provide financial support to students with demonstrated financial need and artistic merit in ArtCenter’s undergraduate program. This scholarship also exists to support students in ACX-Teens, with a preference for those who attend the Pasadena Unified School District.

ArtCenter is deeply grateful to David Brown for his 14-year tenure, from 1985 to 1999, as ArtCenter’s third president, and for his impact on students, faculty, staff and alumni. David passed away at the age of 78 on Friday, October 13, 2023 after a long illness. He established ArtCenter as a leader in the use of digital technology in an art and design education. During his tenure, he helped fundraise $55 million, with up to $40 million invested in scholarships and grants, and significantly increased ArtCenter’s endowment.

As president of ArtCenter, David changed many lives. Not only did he boost technology initiatives and secure industry partnerships-with major gifts from Honda, Samsung, Ford and other companies, also broadened ArtCenter’s educational mission, and expanded programs in animation, digital media and more.

“The ArtCenter graduate is what I call the ‘poet of the visual world’-both the form giver and the meaning maker in a world that is increasingly visual rather than verbal,” he told ArtCenter’s Dot magazine in a 1999 interview. “If designers and visual artists were important in the past, and they were, they will become even more so in the future.”

Although not a designer by training, David was respected and admired by design professionals worldwide. Born and raised in Maine, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree from Trinity College, and completed advanced studies in business administration at Dartmouth.

Before leaving the East Coast for ArtCenter, he produced ground-breaking marketing pieces as vice president of communications and director of creative services at the paper company Champion International. Earlier in his career, he worked as a consultant for graphic design firms including Danne & Blackburn. He also boosted his leadership profile as national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1981 to 1984.

In that same Dot interview, David reflected on his time at ArtCenter, including when he first saw the Hillside Campus and the photographs, paintings, posters and designs on display in the Student Gallery. “Nothing prepared me for the sheer exhilaration of walking through the front door of ArtCenter for the first time,” he said. “The energy! Since then, I’ve probably heard a thousand versions of the same story from alumni, students and visitors to the College. It makes the most amazing and lasting impression. It changes lives.”

David took the College’s helm soon after the first Apple Macintosh was introduced. Under his leadership, and enabled by donations from Apple, Adobe and other companies, ArtCenter installed computer labs, cementing its position as a pioneer in digital design.

David was charged in 1986 with opening the College’s second campus, ArtCenter Europe, in Vevey, Switzerland. That global expansion resulted in more than 500 students graduating from the Vevey campus. When ArtCenter Europe closed in 1996, more than 300 students transferred from Vevey to Pasadena to complete their education.

In 1991, David propelled the opening of Hillside Campus’ South Wing, including the LA Times Media Center and the GM Computer Graphics Lab, the latter of which was funded by a $1 million gift from GM. In 1992, he oversaw the opening of the 4,600-square-foot Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, which was funded by the James Irvine Foundation and Trustee Emeritus Alyce de Roulet Williamson. Since then, and continuing today, the Williamson Gallery has hosted many exhibitions featuring locally and internationally renowned artists and designers.

Significantly, David created an environment of continuous improvement and collaboration. When Alyce first joined ArtCenter’s Board of Trustees in 1986, she asked David what she could do for the College. To which he responded that scholarships were what was most needed. That year, she founded ArtCenter100 as a donor support group to raise money for student scholarships. Since then, the group has raised more than $2.4 million.

In 1988, the family established the David and Judith Brown Endowed Scholarships. Their generous financial support benefits teen students from the Pasadena Unified School District who take public program classes as well as continuing students in any of ArtCenter’s degree programs, with a preference for those from a diversity of backgrounds and whose perspectives are underrepresented in the field of art and design.

After leaving ArtCenter, David went on to become Descanso Gardens’ executive director, and retired in 2016 after 12 years at the botanical garden. David Brown will be missed.