Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic, and curator. She was trained in Latin American art history, receiving her B.F.A. in art history and painting from Southern Methodist University in 1971 and her Masters degree in art history from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. Her 1977 Ph.D. is from the University of New Mexico, where she studied Pre-Columbian art with Mary Elizabeth Smith and the History of Photography with Beaumont Newhall. After moving to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, her interest shifted from ancient Latin American art to Chicano art and, ultimately, to all modern and contemporary art.