Georgette Seabrooke

Georgette Seabrooke (aka Georgette Seabrooke Powell; August 2, 1916 – December 27, 2011), was an American muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist, non-profit chief executive and educator.

Her family moved to New York City in 1920.

George, a restaurant and hotel owner, died when Georgette was a young child.

Her mother was a domestic housekeeper, and Georgette worked with her while quite young.

Georgette did well in school and graduated from Washington Irving High School.

She also studied with James Lesesne Wells at the Harlem Art Workshop, and with Gwendolyn B. Bennett at the Harlem Community Art Center.

The mural she painted, Recreation in Harlem, is nearly 20 feet long and depicts daily life in Harlem in the 1930s, including women chatting through a window and children performing in a choir.

The hospital's management was not pleased with her depiction of an all-black Harlem community as they did not want to be known as a "Negro hospital."

Seabrooke added eight white characters to the mural, but obscured their race in some cases and turned their face from the viewer in others.

(This last piece of information is not verified on the site and conflicts with information elsewhere.) Seabrooke also received a WPA commission to paint a mural at Queens General Hospital, now known as Queens Hospital Center, in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

In 1933, at the age of 17, she was admitted to the prestigious Cooper Union School of Art in New York, where in 1935 she received the school's Silver Medal, its highest honor, for a painting entitled "Church Scene," which "depicts a realism of religious fervor prevalent in many churches at that time."

The painting, along with her other works, are inspired by Seabrooke's Afro-American heritage.

Since childhood, Seabrooke had been painting and drawing images of "Black American lifestyles and African symbolism" and this had influenced her art "which ranges from social realism to decorative design."

Seabrooke's work appeared in 72 major exhibitions between 1933 and 2003 in the United States, Senegal, Venezuela, and Nigeria.

Her works hang in distinguished collections around the United States.

She is best known for her 1936 mural, Recreation in Harlem at Harlem Hospital in New York City, which was restored and put on public display in 2012 after being hidden from view for many years.

Early life and education

Seabrooke was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the only child of George and Anna Seabrooke.

Cooper Union denied Seabrooke her diploma in 1937 for what it said at the time was incomplete work, but six decades later, in 1997, it invited Seabrooke back to its campus to honor her achievements.

Seabrooke married Dr. George Wesley Powell in 1939.

They remained married until 1959 and had three children.

During this period she illustrated calendars and magazines, and she studied theater design at Fordham University.

Seabrooke moved to Washington, D.C., in 1959.

In 1970, she founded Operation Heritage Art Center, now known as Tomorrow's World Art Center.

During the 1970s and 1980s, a time when Washington had a growing homeless population, Seabrooke painted a series of portraits of homeless men and women which emphasized their plight but also imbued them with humanity.

Speaking about her stylistic tendencies, Seabrooke said, "As a people person... I enjoy drawing portraits and prefer charcoal and pastels for the sculptural quality of form, line, and texture."

In 1972 she became a registered art therapist, and the following year earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Howard University.

She was very active in combining art with mental health therapy, teaching at Tomorrow's World Art Center, and at a series of events in Malcolm X Park known as "Art in the Park".

In 1977, Seabrooke traveled to Lagos, Nigeria to represent the United States at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC).

Near the end of her life, Seabrooke moved to Palm Coast, Florida.

In 2008 Cooper Union presented Seabrooke with a lifetime achievement award, and the school now considers her a member of its class of 1937.

Recreation in Harlem and the WPA

While studying at Cooper Union, Seabrooke was chosen by the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as one of four "master artists" to paint murals at Harlem Hospital.

She was the youngest artist so chosen and the only female.

Though she became too ill to continue making art, she remained involved in art therapy and art fundraising until her death, due to cancer, on December 27, 2011.

In 2012, after being hidden from public view for many years and after surviving damage from a fire and being painted over, Recreation in Harlem and the other murals at Harlem Hospital were restored and placed on public view in the hospital's new Mural Pavilion.

Later years and legacy