Unfinished Symphony
Department chair funds travel scholarship to honor friend’s legacy
Written by Lindsey Giardino
Michelle (Meme) Moore saw beauty in the world and others. She experienced life in its most vibrant colors — the entire spectrum, from suffering to joy.
Moore died by suicide in February 2022, leaving a legacy that her friends and family will forever cherish.
“She had a beautiful spirit, one that was deeply, deeply generous,” said Sarah Kyle, Moore’s best friend since the age of 15 and chair of the Department of Art and Visual Culture in the College of Design.
“She was such a bright light in so many people’s lives. She had this beautiful laugh, like champagne bubbles tinkling in a glass.”
A legacy of art and travel
To honor her friend’s spirit and life, Kyle helped create the Meme Moore Unfinished Symphony Award to provide international travel support to students in the art and visual culture department. The endowed fund is also supported by Moore’s father and stepmother, Gary and Monique Moore.
With this award, Moore’s family and friends encourage students to create their own brilliant stories, to write their own “symphonies” in art and experience and to challenge themselves to explore unfamiliar places, learn surprising things and grow as human beings.
Moore spent her career in public relations, but she was also a talented watercolorist, printmaker and violinist. She played in the orchestra at Colorado State University, where she attended on a music scholarship, as well as the Aurora Symphony after college.
Moore also loved traveling and visited both England and Italy to study and create art.
“Music and art just seemed to come easy to her,” said Gary Moore. “We wanted to help carry on her legacy and give other students the opportunity to travel and study art like Michelle did.”
Monique Moore, who had the chance to read Meme’s journal from her time in Italy, observed, “Michelle had such an adventure. I want others to share that wonder, the richness of other times and cultures, to add to their own experiences.”
Guided to go further, and farther
The inaugural recipient of the Meme Moore Unfinished Symphony Award was integrated studio arts senior Jazmin Terrell, who graduated with her bachelor of fine arts from Iowa State in May. It’s serendipity that she shares the same interests as Moore had.
“I’m incredibly grateful,” Terrell said. “I always considered studying abroad to be out of my reach logistically or too daunting. As I challenged myself to [study in Italy] this past summer, I was supported and validated by this award. It felt as if I was guided to go on this journey to Rome and to push myself further than I ever have.”
Terrell had the chance to meet Moore’s family at the College of Design’s scholarship award banquet this past fall. She even gave Moore’s father a framed print she made while in Italy, which is now placed at the entrance of their home.
“I felt I was watching Meme reach out and touch her dad,” Kyle said of the experience. “It was the most beautiful thing.”
What impressed Gary Moore the most about visiting Iowa State and meeting students like Terrell was how articulate, talented and motivated they are.
“I’m really happy to be able to help some of these students continue their education and do what their life aspirations are,” he said.
Continuing to make an impact
Meme Moore is an “unfinished symphony” for the loved ones she left behind, but Kyle feels the scholarship honors a life cut short by continuing her friend’s memory.
“The recipients become part of her story, too,” Kyle said. “It’s a place in which I can still see Meme. She’s still with us and is making an impact on our students. That’s something that sustains me personally — because I miss her.”
Ultimately, Kyle hopes the Meme Moore Unfinished Symphony Award provides encouragement to students to be brave, stretch themselves, travel and seize the day — everything Moore embodied.