Sandra Brownlee earned her MFA in Fibers from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has received numerous awards including a Nova Scotia Talent Trust, Canada Council B Grant, Ontario Arts Council Grant, Pew Fellowship in the Arts Award, Leeway Foundation Grant for Excellence in Fibre Art, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.
Sandra Brownlee has exhibited her work extensively in Canada and the USA in both solo and group exhibitions since the late 1970’s including a solo exhibition in 2009 at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax titled Departures and Returns, Sandra Brownlee which highlighted the Deluxe Edition of Departures and Returns, Sandra Brownlee a limited edition book work with hand woven, stitched and drawn elements by the artist. In 2012, she had a solo show at the Liao Collection in Philadelphia, PA titled Sandra Brownlee, New Weavings and is currently working towards a solo exhibition of her weavings, stitched works, book works and tactile notebooks at the Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art in conjunction with a retrospective exhibition of textile legend Lenore Tawney in 2012/2013. Other upcoming exhibitions include participation in a large touring group show organized by the Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, titled Innovators and Legends as well as a solo show of weavings at the David Kaye Gallery in Toronto, On in 2013.
Parallel to her work as an artist, Sandra Brownlee has been an active teacher for 40 years. She lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia where she pursues her ongoing interests in weaving, tactile notebook keeping, and teaching.
