Virginia Portia Royall Inness-Brown was a proponent of the arts and first recipient of the Handel Medallion of New York City, in 1959.
Biography
Virginia Portia Royall was born in Medford, Massachusetts on May 4, 1901, the daughter of John Allen Crosskeys Royall and Agatha Caroline Freeman. She married New York publisher Hugh Alwyn Inness-Brown, Sr. on March 26, 1921, in Lillington, North Carolina. They lived in Plandome Manor, Nassau County, New York and had four children: Page Inness-Brown, Hugh Alwyn Inness-Brown, Jr, Virginia Inness-Brown, and Constance Inness-Brown Von Valkenburg. Her granddaughter Elizabeth Inness-Brown is a novelist and educator. Virginia's husband, Hugh, died of a heart attack in their New York home in 1972. Virginia died of congestive heart failure in Damariscotta, Maine on August 8th, 1990.
Cultural activities
Mrs. Inness-Brown was a member and officer of the American National Theatre and Academy. She served as the vice-chairman of the International Cultural Exchange of ANTA, 1954–63, national vice-president, 1963–66, vice-chairman, Performing Arts Program "Salute to France", 1954–55, and was chairman of the Drama, Dance, and Theatre Panels of ANTA. She was the international delegate of ANTA to Poland in 1963. In 1966, Inness-Brown was the president and chairman of the American corporation for the first Festival of Negro Arts, also known as the World Festival of Black Arts, held in Dakar, Senegal.
Later activities
Mrs. Inness-Brown was a board member of the Phoenix Theatre in New York, 1959–60;
Chairman of the Convocation of Congress Hall, Berlin, 1957;
Board member of the Midtown International Center, New York City, 1963;
Director of the board of trustees of the Festival Foundation, New York City and Spoleto, Italy, 1961–76;
Board member of the Clarion Music Society, 1959–64;
Board member and executive committee member of the Manhattan Division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1959–76, and national representative to the Conference of U.S. Organizations on the United Nations, 1964;
Board member, Ballet Theatre Foundation, New York City, 1958–78;
Chairman of the U.S. Committee for the first World Festival of Negro Arts, 1964, and president of the U.S. Committee, 1965-77.
Awards and achievements
She was the recipient of the, 1955;
Freiheitsglocke, the highest cultural award bestowed by the city of West Berlin, 1957;
Handel Medallion, New York City, 1959;
Citation for Achievement, Congress Hall Berlin, 1959;
