Walls That Speak: Hearing Color, Seeing Sound: Moe Brooker’s Legacy at SCH

As part of a series about SCH's permanent art collection, Director of Arts Megan Monaghan writes about Moe Brooker's artwork in McCausland Lower School.

Bold, gestural, and deeply rooted in community, Moe Brooker's Untitled (2012), housed in McCausland Lower School, continues to speak to SCH every day. Bursting with saturated color, dynamic pattern, and expressive marks that mimic rhythm and movement, the work embodies Brooker’s vision of art as a living, collaborative practice. Music, particularly jazz, has long inspired Brooker, and his paintings often translate its energy into vibrant, improvisational forms.

Born in 1940 in Philadelphia, Brooker is nationally known for his vibrant paintings and fabric works. Over the course of his distinguished career, he received numerous awards, including the James Van Der Zee Lifetime Achievement Award, and has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Parsons School of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Moore College of Art and Design. He earned a BFA in 1970 and an MFA in 1972 from the Tyler School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with an emphasis on expressive visual language through rigorous study and experimentation. In addition to his studio practice, he has shaped generations of artists as a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Parsons School of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Moore College of Art and Design. His bold use of color, pattern, and gestural rhythm continues to inspire artists and communities nationwide.

For his family, that creative energy was just as present at home as it was in the studio. “My Uncle Moe played a defining role in inspiring my artistic journey,” reflects his great niece, Jacey Gailliard ’22. “He was the first person I witnessed channel his passion into something meaningful and accessible to others. Growing up, I watched him seamlessly integrate creativity into his daily life, revealing both the discipline behind the work and the deep sense of purpose it can bring. His influence gave me the confidence to explore and express my own artistic voice.”

In 2012, Brooker graciously shared his artistic inspiration with Gailliard's class. As a Springside School Visiting Artist, he connected with students in ways that left a lasting impression, inspiring collaboration, creativity, and joy that continue to resonate throughout our community.

“Each student in 2nd grade (Class of 2022) made one mark on the page. Then we listened to jazz, and all watched as he used their marks to help make his art," said Lower School art teacher Kathy Giovinazzo.

Today, Untitled hangs in the office of Head of Lower School Douglas Wainwright, where its gestural energy continues to connect with our community each day—quietly reinforcing the values of collaboration, creativity, and joy that define the Lower School experience.

That dialogue with Moe Brooker’s work continues across campus as 6th-grade Middle School student artists explore his abstract paintings by focusing on the Elements of Art and Principles of Design, and then create their own mixed-media abstract compositions inspired by his process. This creative process was infused with the sounds and inspiration of jazz music, just as Brooker worked in his studio, allowing rhythm and sound to influence their experimentation with color, movement, form, and design concepts.

This learning also extends into the Barbara Crawford Gallery, where our community has had the special opportunity to engage with Moe Brooker’s work, Almost There, currently on loan and featured in Echoes Of Our Future: 250 Years of Black Artistic Legacy in Philadelphia. This pastel and mixed-media collage on paper, created while Brooker was a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, demonstrates his mastery of gestural marks and rhythmic abstraction, prompting students to examine its composition, gestures, and connections to rhythm, movement, and Brooker’s remarkable artistic legacy.

For Jacey’s mother, Tracey Scott Hall, Brooker’s impact is both artistic and deeply personal. “My uncle’s art holds a quiet power in my life. It reminds me how imagination can transform something ordinary into something meaningful. When I look at his pieces, I feel connected to the way he saw the world, his curiosity, his courage, and his willingness to explore emotion through color, shape, and story. His art has become a kind of inheritance for me, not in a material way, but in an emotional and creative sense. It teaches me that art is a conversation across time, and his voice still speaks to me through every line and texture.”

Moe Brooker and his work, Untitled, continue to link generations of SCH artists and learners, reminding us that our walls don’t just display art. They hold stories.