Brooke Maxwell

Brooke Maxwell’s artistic vision includes arts in education projects, public art projects, curatorials, and independent art works. Her teaching exhibitions, murals and individual arts projects encourage students to practice investigation, appreciative based inquiry, and whole systems thinking. Projects start by engaging students with personal explorations using all five senses, and finish by engaging students with the whole world. “Spice Globally”, a recent project at PS5 combined art, geography, and cultural heritage. “Rwanda Mon Amour”, a project with Facing History and Ourselves, combined art, theater, and history. “Art for Peace” a workshop produced by the U.S. State Department in Kuala Lumpur, combined art, photography, and creative writing.

Earlier in her career, Maxwell founded and directed Creative Arts Workshops (CAW), an arts based organization for inner city at risk children from multi stressed families. Her art programs addressed homelessness, substance abuse, HIV / AIDS, and gender based violence, providing inspiration, education, empowerment and hope. At CAW, Maxwell designed and realized two community art parks in Harlem and numerous individual and public art projects in collaboration with the children and staff of CAW.

Maxwell has received awards from the Mayor of New York and the Borough President of Manhattan, and was given high commendation by Article 19’s Freedom to Create Prize for her work in Rwanda. She was recently interviewed by Penelope Green and by Michelle Agins for The New York Times.

Maxwell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 from The School of Visual Arts, New York. In 2008, she conducted post - graduate studies with C. Daniel Dawson at Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies. In 2011, Maxwell attended Women and Power: Leadership in a New World, at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.