Annual Meeting of the Membership

Please join us for the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Membership and learn about the Museum’s 2018 accomplishments from the Museum’s Board of Trustees and Administration, followed by a lecture by esteemed guest speaker Sylvia Brown, and reception.

“A Complex Legacy – America’s Philanthropic Impulse and Funding for the Arts”

Leveraging her family’s 300-year philanthropic legacy and her own 35 years of experience in the charitable sector, Sylvia Brown is a passionate advocate of thoughtful and effective giving. After earning her BS and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Sylvia pursued a career in international development, from Wall Street to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, from investment promotion campaigns in emerging markets to micro-finance initiatives on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

In 2007, a course in strategic philanthropy sparked her new mission to promote affordable donor education. For the past decade, she has helped donors with their giving strategies and non-profits with their sustainability.  In 2015, Sylvia launched Uplifting Journeys, “boot camps for smarter donors,” and now is developing a virtual version of her experiential curriculum. In 2017, she published “Grappling With Legacy – Rhode Island’s Brown Family and the American Philanthropic Impulse”. In 2018, she was certified as a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy and is currently an Encore Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project, writing on effective giving practices for America’s retirees.

Sylvia’s great grandmother, Natalie Dresser Brown, a painter, was a founder of the Newport Art Museum; her grandfather, John Nicholas Brown, one of the “Monuments Men,” was a passionate advocate of great art and architecture; and her uncle, J. Carter Brown, was Director of the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

All are welcome to attend the Annual Meeting of the Membership.