[2] Brownson also held status as a Queer elder and member of New Zealand's Gay Liberation Movement.

[4] In 2006, the research papers from his master's thesis on New Zealand realist painter Rita Angus became part of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki's archives.

[4] Brownson began his career at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 1978 as a research librarian at the EH McCormick Library.

[5] Over his career he contributed to a number of pivotal exhibitions at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

In 2008, Brownson won the Illustrated non-fiction award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, a book written in collaboration with Jennifer Hay, Chris Knox, and Laurence Aberhart.