Vice Provost for the Arts John Brown will step down on June 30 to return to the Duke faculty and focus on arts practice, education and performances and global arts advocacy, Provost Alec D. Gallimore announced today.
Gallimore will name a committee to lead a national search for Brown’s successor. The vice provost for the arts is responsible for the overall direction of the arts across Duke, including overseeing Duke Arts Presents and the Rubenstein Arts Center, and works collaboratively to deepen the integration of the arts into the educational experience and extend the impact of the arts at Duke to Durham, the region, and beyond.
Brown, a professor of the practice and a member of the faculty in the Department of Music for more than two decades, was appointed vice provost for the arts in 2020, the first person to serve full-time in the position. Assuming the role at the start of the pandemic, he worked to ensure that arts education and programming continued amid the dislocation and isolation caused by Covid-19.
As vice provost, Brown also championed more expansive and inclusive arts programs, evolved programming models to include student and faculty voices, increased arts engagement opportunities for students, expanded connections with the Durham community and led the merger of Duke Arts and Duke Performances. The latter was rebranded Duke Arts Presents in 2023 to add visual and literary arts to a long tradition of presenting world-class professional dance, music and theater.
“John Brown is a great ambassador of the arts at Duke and a catalyst for enhancing and expanding its role on our campus and in the communities we serve,” Gallimore said. “I am grateful for his leadership over the past five years and know he will continue to bring passion and creativity to his renowned work as an artist, educator and advocate.”
Brown joined Duke’s music department as an adjunct instructor in 2001, becoming assistant professor of the practice of music and director of the Duke Jazz Program in 2003. A Grammy- and Emmy-nominated bassist, he has performed regularly with the North Carolina Symphony and internationally with jazz luminaries as well as in ballet and opera orchestras, feature films, television movies, theater and on recordings. He also leads his own groups in performances and education residencies and has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror. He graduated from the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Serving as vice provost for the arts has been an incredible honor,” Brown said. “Over five years, we've all seen significant change, healing and unity through arts. I'm grateful to teammates, artists, students and colleagues for this meaningful journey. Looking to the future, I'm committed to continuing impactful work at Duke and meeting new challenges with optimism."
