As curator at the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago from 2006 to 2021, Peter John (PJ) Brownlee oversaw a collection of over 700 paintings and works on paper, and organized a number of exhibitions in collaboration with museum partners such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the musée du Louvre, the National Museum of Korea, the Shanghai Museum, and the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. Along with co-organizing Picturing the Americas and other exhibitions, Brownlee edited and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues. Brownlee is also the author of The Commerce of Vision: Optical Culture and Perception in Antebellum America and his articles have appeared in American Art and Journal of the Early Republic. In early 2023, Brownlee opened Art Sound Language, a record and bookstore in the Chevy Chase neighbourhood of Washington, DC. Featuring an eclectic selection of records and an array of books on art, music, and graphic design, Art Sound Language also hosts exhibitions and other events devoted to intersections of art, sound, and language.