A lifetime of collecting begins with a spark of excitement about a single work of art. For Bruce Brown, it was a painting by Maine artist Stephen Etnier, which he purchased in the 1970s. What followed was five decades of artistic discovery, expanding from Maine’s creative communities to some of the most influential artists working around the world.

As a high school teacher in Freeport who regularly brought his students to the Portland Museum of Art, Brown developed a passion for collecting that would shape his life and leave a lasting mark on Maine’s artistic landscape. Drawn especially to printmaking, he assembled a remarkable collection of works by artists including Glenn Ligon, Ed Ruscha, Carroll Dunham, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, and Richard Serra. Along the way, he became a curator, artist, photographer, and dedicated advocate for contemporary art in Maine.

Making a Mark traces Brown’s lifelong engagement with contemporary art through an extraordinary selection of works he has gifted to the PMA, including a monumental etching by Richard Serra, his first gift to the museum in 1999. Together, these works reveal the evolution of a collector’s eye, the artists who captured his imagination, and the expressive possibilities of contemporary printmaking.

Following PMA exhibitions devoted to the collections of Alex Katz and David Driskell, Making a Mark: The Bruce Brown Print Collection at the PMA continues an exploration of how individual collecting practices shape a museum’s holdings and its cultural legacy. Brown’s lifelong engagement with art, from his early years as an educator to his decades as a collector and curator, has become an enduring contribution to Maine and the PMA, enriching its collection for future generations of visitors, including students much like those he first brought to the museum decades ago.