OPENING SOON
NOW OPEN
Plan Your Visit

Listen with Your Eyes: A Moe Brooker Retrospective

September 26, 2026
-
January 17, 2027

Woodmere is proud to present Listen with Your Eyes, the inaugural retrospective dedicated to the work of Moe Brooker (1940–2022), one of Philadelphia's most beloved and visionary artists. The exhibition traces the full arc of his career, from his academic realist paintings of the 1960s through his incandescent abstract works, characterized by rainbow patchwork fields animated by sweeping calligraphic marks. Brooker drew on an exceptionally rich array of sources: the structure and tonalities of jazz music; the bright lights and graffiti of the Philadelphia cityscape; African and African-American weavings and quilts; and art-historical touchstones ranging from Giotto to Wassily Kandinsky and Hans Hofmann. Listen with Your Eyes also features a selection of Brooker's wall-mounted and freestanding sculptures, weavings, sketchbooks, and personal ephemera, offering an intimate window into the mind and practice of this extraordinary artist.

Listen With Your Eyes is supported by generous grants from the William Penn Foundation, the William M. King Charitable Foundation, and the Edna Wright Andrade Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation.

Exhibition Opening: Listen With Your Eyes, a Moe Brooker Retrospective
Exhibition Opening Reception
Smith Hall

Exhibition Opening: Listen With Your Eyes, a Moe Brooker Retrospective

10 am - 5 pm
|
Sep 26, 2026
Free & Open to All
Enjoy free admission all day at Smith Hall in celebration of the opening of Listen With Your Eyes: A Moe Brooker Retrospective.
Register
Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop
Event
Smith Hall

Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop

1 - 3 pm
|
Nov 8, 2026
FREE; Advance Registration Required
Ekphrastic: a literary response to a work of visual art. Join Woodmere and Wild Indigo Poetry for an afternoon celebrating the connections between visual art, poetry, and music. Inspired by the vibrant artwork of Moe Brooker, participants will explore the galleries and take part in an ekphrastic poetry-writing workshop led by acclaimed poets Raina J. León and Kirwyn Sutherland. The workshops will be followed by an open mic in the galleries, with music by Miles Orion Butler and Karen Smith. The afternoon will conclude with light refreshments on Woodmere’s porch. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. Advance registration is required.
Register
’Round Midnight (1986 / 133 min)
Film
Smith Hall

’Round Midnight (1986 / 133 min)

7 pm
|
Dec 1, 2026
Free
Legendary jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon stars as Dale Turner, an expatriate American musician struggling with addiction in 1950s Paris, where an unlikely friendship with a devoted French fan offers him a second chance. Featuring a who’s who of real jazz musicians – Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, and Freddie Hubbard – the film earned Gordon an Academy Award nomination and Hancock an Oscar for his score.

In the news

Check back soon for more news!