Clementine Brown

Clementine Brown, an iconic figure in Public Relations, Arts Marketing, and a cultural ambassador for Boston, passed away at Goddard House in Brookline, where she lived for the past seven years. Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn August 28, 1928, Clementine’s passion for communications was ignited at the prestigious New York advertising agency N.W. Ayer where she worked her way up from copywriter to become the first woman Vice President. There she was part of the memorable launch for the “Diamonds are Forever” campaign by DeBeers and as a result, her passion for fashion and the media was born.

Clementine relocated to Boston to work with the legendary fashion director Harriet Wilinsky at Filene’s. She traveled with Wilinsky to Paris, bringing international fashion promotions to Boston. She then joined Arnold & Co. where she became Boston’s youngest female Vice President. Later at Hargood Associates she worked with the Beacon Companies on the development of 1, 2 and 3 Central Plaza, across from City Hall. Upon completion of Phase 1, Clementine recommended painting the giant wall white with three words “TO BE CONTINUED.” This creative PR campaign won numerous awards in the United States and Europe.

Brown attended the first March on Washington in August 1963 when she was thirty-five. She booked her $15 ticket on a Freedom Bus and while leaving Boston, saw a group of young boys holding a sign that said, “Speed on Freedom Fighters,” which buoyed her courage to take the bus alone to D.C. After she heard Martin Luther King deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, she said, “going to the march was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

Best known for her 20-year tenure as Director of PR at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Clementine brought all the creativity and daring of her years in advertising to transform how museums conduct business. She pioneered the idea of cultural tourism by promoting the MFA as a destination, working with airlines, hotels, restaurants, and other cultural partners. Joining the museum in 1970 for its Centennial year, Clementine’s initiatives helped drive MFA visitor revenues, and created cachet for the Museum and the city of Boston.

With her characteristic zeal for securing local and national publicity, she helped package and promote blockbuster exhibitions like Pompeii AD 79 (1978) and The Search for Alexander (1981). She is best known for the promotion of the Renoir exhibition, featuring the artist’s life work that was only shown in Boston.

Clem mobilized airlines, hotels, restaurants, and the Office of Travel & Tourism to make Boston the destination for art lovers from around the world. This effort was so successful that it became the model for creating global arts events.

An avid gardener, Clementine was instrumental in creating one of MFA Boston’s signature events, the annual “Art in Bloom” (1976) which has also been adopted by museums around the world.  Her crowning achievement was conceiving the idea for a satellite museum at Quincy Market during the MFA’s 1979-1981 IM Pei West Wing expansion project. Drawing on her real estate PR experience, she helped bring artwork from the MFA’s collections to a 10,000 square foot gallery at Quincy Market, Boston’s then newest retail and tourist destination.

In 1980, along with other prominent women working in the arts such as Lila Harnett, Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, Carol Morgan, Caroline Goldsmith and others, Clementine was a founder of the professional organization ArtTable, established to advance women’s leadership positions in the visual arts.

Not only was Clementine an executive at the MFA, but she was also a devoted member and patron. She made gifts of art to the collection including a photo of Louis Armstrong and her portrait by famed photographer Marie Cosindas taken in 1965 and gifted to the MFA in 2007. She also established a charitable trust for the Museum. When she retired in 1988, the Clementine Haas Michel Brown Gallery for prints and drawings was named for her. In further recognition of her exemplary service and generosity to the Museum, Clementine was inducted into the Denman Waldo Ross Society and the Sargent Society and named a benefactor of the Museum.

After leaving the MFA Boston, Clementine served on the Board of Boston Architectural College and was Director of Media Relations for the Howard Gottlieb Center at Boston University, attracting gifts and archives for the city of Boston she loved so well.

One of Clementine’s enduring legacies was to build alliances across industries for the love of art and the thrill of collaboration. She had a unique gift for forming successful partnerships. She never stopped working and thinking about how to help her friends and favorite organizations succeed.

Armed with her “golden rolodex,” she had private numbers for senators, mayors, celebrities, news anchors —and even the White House. If you needed advice, a job, a new beau—Clementine had the answer. She mentored hundreds of PR students and helped scores of executives find new jobs and even life partners. She was the consummate networker in the days before it was fashionable to network. You could see her five-foot form (and striking white hair) dash across the room and dazzle whomever was in her path. Once you were her friend, you were her friend for life.

Clementine had close ties to Marblehead where she lived and sailed with her late husband Calef Brown. She is survived by her devoted stepson Amos HC Brown of Jamaica, Vermont and his wife Nancy, and her grandson Corey Brown of Charleston, SC. Her brother, George M. Hass and sister, Edna Proce, predeceased her. She also leaves behind many adoring friends and colleagues with whom she communicated regularly by phone and snail mail.

Memorial gifts may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Services will be private. A memorial celebration is being planned. Contact [email protected] for more information.