Aug. 21, 2024-The art gallery inside Potter Hall at Missouri Western State University bears a new name. The Drew Brown Art Gallery salutes a longtime community activist and staunch supporter of Missouri Western.

Brown has served as chair of the Missouri Western Arts Society since 2017. In 2019, he made a gift of $1 million, the largest outright unrestricted gift in Missouri Western's history.

"Unrestricted giving is the most precious sort of giving any institution can receive," said Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy, Missouri Western's president. "It helps us cope with unexpected challenges and, in this case, seize special opportunities. An unrestricted gift of this scale is rare, and represents a positive inflection point in the University's journey into the future."

"I love this university," Brown said. "Missouri Western brings so much to the St. Joseph community, whether it's arts offerings, the expertise of its faculty or, most importantly, workforce development. We all want a better life, and most students come to Missouri Western because they see it as the key to that better life. Missouri Western gives people an opportunity to fly when they are not even sure if they have wings."

The gift is being used as a match to a MoExcels grant from the State of Missouri called Digital Solutions for a Modern Missouri. In total, this $2.5 million renovation of Potter Hall will support improvements to Missouri Western's digital animation, graphic design and cinema programs with collaborative student spaces, labs and studios.

The MWSU Foundation also commissioned a bust of Brown's likeness to be permanently displayed in the Potter Hall lobby. The bust was created by Leila Hicks, a Missouri Western alum who returned to take art classes and earned a second degree, this time in art, in 2005. She created the clay bust during a sculpture class taught by Eric Fuson, former artist-in-residence and now executive director of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum. Hicks donated the bust so that it could be cast in bronze for the display in Potter Hall.

Brown, a native of Philadelphia, earned bachelor's degrees in biology and German at North Carolina Central University in Durham. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1966 and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1992. While in the service, Brown graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College with the equivalent of a master's degree. He is the owner of Brown Investments.

Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu.