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Congratulations

  • Yuri Masnyi (A'98), Jennifer Reeves, adjunct faculty, School of Art, and recent Visiting Artists Paul Chan and Jutta Koether will be in this year's Whitney Biennial. Curated by Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne, Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night will open on March 2 and will remain on view through May 28.

  • Humanities and Social Sciences Professor Brian Swann's poem "Birds in the Woods" has won the Anne Halley Poetry Prize for the best poem published in the Massachusetts Review.

  • Professor Cosmas Tzavelis, Civil Engineering, has been included in the September 2005 edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers thanks to a nomination submitted by Cooper Union students. The publication honors those special teachers who "took the time to lead, inspire and demand excellence." The student nominators have been honored in The National Dean's List.

  • Shigeru Ban (AR'94) has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the 94th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Publications and papers

  • President Campbell spoke on "The Roles and Responsibilities of Higher Education" at the 50th anniversary celebration of Harvey Mudd College.

  • Anthony Vidler, Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, presented the paper "The Aerial Photograph: Nadar to Debord" at a conference titled Illustration at Stanford University's Center for the Study of the Novel, January 13.

  • Dean Vidler participated in "Shangri La Unfolding: Place, Space, Home and the Decorative Arts" a symposium held at "Shangri La," the Doris Duke Foundation, in Honolulu in January.

  • School of Art Dean Saskia Bos' publication celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of De Appel and the 10th anniversary of De Appel's Curatorial Training Programme has been released. If walls had ears covers the De Appel's innovative work from 1984-2005 and includes text by Michael Archer, Saskia Bos, Edna van Duyn, Charles Esche, Hou Hanru, Jörg Heiser, Gavin Jantjes, Luk Lambrech and Annelie Pohlen. If walls had ears will be available soon in the United States through DAP (Distributed Art Publishers).

  • Dean Saskia Bos will participate in the International Contemporary Art Experts Forum, part of ARCO'06 in Madrid. Dean Bos will speak on Curatorial Studies with Andrew Renton, Liam Gillick, Pip Day, and Ralph Rugoff.

  • Engineering Associate Dean Simon Ben-Avi, Professor Ian Kremenic and others, published papers in: "Cyclic Loading of Coracoclavicular Ligament Reconstructions," and "Cyclic Loading of Achilles Tendon Repairs Simulating Early Postoperative Forces."

  • At the Yale School of Architecture, the symposium "Philip Johnson and the Constancy of Change" will feature Peggy Deamer (AR'78), Peter Eisenman, Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished Professor of Architecture, and Joan Ockman (AR'80) among others, February 16-18.

  • Professor Diane H. Lewis (AR'76) is the 2006 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. She will lecture on "Eros and Psyche: Architecture" on February 14.

  • Peter Eisenman, Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished Professor of Architecture, will lecture on "Architecture Against Itself" at the University of Toronto on March 28.

  • Dean Maltz (AR'84), associate architect on Shigeru Ban's (AR'84) Nomadic Museum, presented the project at the Center for Architecture as part of the "Winning Work 2005 AIA NY Chapter Interior Architecture and Projects Awards" program on November 29.

  • "El Monumento como Paradoja" ["The Monument as Paradox"] by Jana Leo de Blas, adjunct faculty, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, was published in the Spanish review CIRCO, 2005, #134. The paper was started as a chapter of her doctoral thesis in 2004 and was further developed when she visited Peter Eisenman's Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin and when she taught the Fall 2005 Advanced Topics class in the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.

  • Robert Thill, Director of the Professional Internship Program and Career Counselor for Art and Architecture, published Action is Drawing: Acute Zonal Occult Outer for the Drawing Center's publication series entitled Drawing Papers to accompany an exhibition in the Drawing Room, on view through February 11. Organized by Fritz Welch, the exhibit features a malleable art environment created for a series of performances by international artists working in the fields of Neo-Actionism, Endurance, and Noise.

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giving to cooper union

  • Volunteer for Phonathon 2006 - Every spring parents, students, and alumni generously volunteer their time to participate in The Cooper Union's Phonathon, which this year will take place from March 13-20. The Phonathon raises much needed funding for the College's Annual Fund, which supports The Cooper Union's most basic needs: faculty, the physical plant, and the tradition of a full-tuition scholarship for every student. All gifts to the Annual Fund are fully tax-deductible. Send your contribution before March 1 and your name will be removed from the call list. To volunteer for this year's Phonathon please email alumni@cooper.edu or call 212-353-4164 by February 28.

  • Many thanks to Lenore (A'45) and Joe Scott who recently established a new Charitable Gift Annuity, a gift that pays individuals an income for life and then provides deferred support for the college.

  • The Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc. recently renewed its support of the Saturday Outreach Program.

  • Many thanks to Dr. Greg Han (CE'68) who established a PAGE Fund (Perpetual Annual Giving Endowment), which provides income to the Annual Fund in perpetuity and to Dr. Ron Drucker (CE'62) who matched the gift to honor Greg.

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Don't Miss

General Interest

  • Fourth Annual Urban Visionaries Benefit
    On Tuesday, March 28, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art will host its fourth annual Urban Visionaries Benefit at which Jenny Holzer will be honored for her accomplishments in visual art, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio for their achievements in architecture, Nicholas Donofrio for his outstanding contributions to the field of engineering. Marie-Josée Kravis will be honored for urban citizenship and Simon Lok as an emerging talent.

    This year's benefit will take place at Skylight, a dramatic new events space in Lower Manhattan. The evening will begin with a cocktail reception featuring an extensive Silent Art Auction of small works by some of the country's most talented artists, followed by a seated dinner and awards presentation.

    Tickets are available for $500, $1,000 and $2,500, and tables at $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000. All proceeds will support the Cooper Union's hallmark policy of awarding full-tuition scholarships to all admitted students. For more information and reservations, contact Lindsey Cole at 212.353.4106 or via email at lcole@cooper.edu. Keep checking www.cooper.edu/urbanvisionaries for updates and to see photographs of last year's event.

  • Don't miss CU@Lunch with Jennifer Lee (AR'97) on February 14 at noon. Jennifer Lee was most recently selected to participate with her firm OBRA Architects as a finalist in this year's PS1/MoMA Young Architects Program and was named one of 2005's "Emerging Voices" by the Architectural League of New York. She has taught at the Cooper Union and previously in the Graduate Architecture Department of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, as well as acting as Architect-in-Residence at Cranbrook Art Academy. Her firm's work has been honored by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design. OBRA's first monograph, published by China Architecture and Building Press, was released in October 2005. CU@Lunch is sponsored by Career Services and Alumni Relations.

  • Moving Archive: 23 Films in 23 Days, a film festival open to the Cooper Community, is presented by The School of Art in the Houghton Gallery through February 24. The films, which were recommended by faculty, staff, students and alumni, come from the Cooper Union Visual Resources Collection. One film will be shown each weekday, with several screenings throughout the day. Check daily posters near the Houghton Gallery for film titles and screening times.

Alumni Events

  • Welcome to new Director of Alumni Relations Susan Moyle Lynch, who joined The Cooper Union's External Affairs staff in January. Most recently at Andover Newton Theological School where she managed the capital campaign, Susan has been Director of Reunions and Class Events at MIT, Director of Alumnae Relations at Russell Sage College, and held a variety of positions in development and alumni relations at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Susan's work reflects the knowledge and commitment gained as an active member of her own alumnae association. A graduate of Russell Sage College with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts (art history), Susan has been on her Alumnae Association Board of Directors for 11 years, served as a class agent for the Annual Fund and has been an Alumnae Admission Program volunteer. Susan can be reached by at 212-353-4139 and via e-mail at slynch@cooper.edu.

  • The Cooper Union Alumni Association Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony, commemorating the 215th birthday of Peter Cooper and celebrating the 147th anniversary of The Cooper Union, will be held at noon on February 7 in Peter Cooper Park. Call 212-353-4164 or email alumni@cooper.edu to RSVP.

  • The Florida Chapter of the Cooper Union Alumni Association will celebrate Peter Cooper's birthday at the Annual Founder's Day Luncheon on February 12 from noon to 3pm at the Lauderdale Yacht Club. Call 212-353-4164 or email alumni@cooper.edu to make your reservation.

  • The Annual Founder's Day Dinner Dance celebrating Peter Cooper's 215th Birthday and honoring alumni for their achievements will be held on April 21, 7pm at Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway. Call 212-353-4164 or email alumni@cooper.edu to attend.

Exhibitions

  • Chip Kidd: Book One - Twenty years of books, sketches, ideas, etc. 1986-2006
    Curated by Mike Essl, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, The Cooper Union
    Through February 4
    Weekdays 11am-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm
    Closed Sundays, December 22 through January 3 and January 16
    The Cooper Union, School of Art, Lubalin Center, 2nd Floor, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

    Heralded by The New York Times Magazine as a "leading designer" and by the New York Post as a "graphics guru," the work of renowned book designer Chip Kidd will be on view in an exclusive exhibition at The Cooper Union. Kidd's retrospective provides a behind the scenes look at the entire spectrum of the book design process, including over three hundred book covers, correspondence with authors and artists, sketches, and vintage media clippings about book jackets. Kidd, a passionate Batman archivist and super-hero aficionado, also displays original commissioned artwork used by Frank Miller, Chris Ware, Tony Millionaire and Alex Ross. Covers for David Sedaris, James Ellroy and Oliver Sacks and the immediately identifiable Cormac McCarthy trilogy of All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain are also part of the singular exhibition. Chip Kidd's career in graphic design spans twenty years and his work illustrates his unique gift to encapsulate a book's essence into a graphic statement. The exhibition coincides with the release of Book One Work: 1986-2006, a monograph just published by Rizzoli. www.cooper.edu/art/lubalin

  • The work of Shigeru Ban (AR'84) is featured in the group exhibition "The Fashion of Architecture: Constructing the Architecture of Fashion" at the Center for Architecture, through March 11.

  • Professor Day Gleeson, School of Art, is in "The Downtown Show" at Grey Art Gallery which features 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, graffiti videos, and photographs as well as over 100 items from Fales Library, New York University's rare book and manuscript collection. This exhibition, on view through April 1, is the first definitive survey of the art and culture produced in downtown New York during the volatile 10-year period from 1974 to 1984.

  • Lorenzo Clayton, adjunct faculty, School of Art, has new work at the National Museum of the American Indian in "New Tribe New York." This exhibition will be on view through April 9.

  • Professor Walid Raad, School of Art, (The Atlas Group) has a solo exhibition at The Kitchen on view through March 11.

  • School of Art Film Department staff member Zach Poff has projects in two upcoming exhibitions. "Observational Soundscape III" (a collaboration with N.B. Aldrich) will be part of a show called "Activator" at Bates College in Maine through March 20. "Parallel Rhetoric: Coming and Going" will be part of a show called NOW AGAIN THE PAST at the Carnegie Art Center in Buffalo from February 11 - March 18.

  • Maria Elena González, Visiting Artist, Sculpture, has a solo exhibition of new work at The Project. "Supine Tendency" is on view through February 17. There will be a concurrent project, "Internal DupliCity," at Knoedler & Company (in collaboration with The Project) through March 4.

  • Alex Villar, Visiting Artist, Sculpture, has new work in a group show featuring more than 60 artists titled "Attitude" at the Magaza Cultural Center in Bitola, Macedonia.

Upcoming Lectures and Public Programs

  • Sister Helen Prejean: The Death of Innocents
    Lecture and book signing
    Wednesday, February 1, 6:30pm
    The Great Hall
    7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

    Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States which was #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for 31 weeks and was made into a major motion picture and an opera. Her new book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions continues her crusade against the death penalty. She points out that since 1973, 121 people have been exonerated and released from death row with evidence of their innocence and is convinced that two of the people she accompanied to their executions were actually innocent.

  • Shlomo Ben-Ami: Scars of War, Wounds of Peace
    Lecture and book signing
    Tuesday, February 7, 6:30pm
    The Great Hall
    7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

    An Oxford-trained historian, Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Foreign Minister of Israel. He was a key figure in the Camp David negotiations and many other rounds of peace talks, public and secret, with Palestinian and Arab officials. Scars of War, Wounds of Peace is a razor sharp account of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the birth of Israel to the present.

  • Patti Smith: Auguries of Innocence
    Reading and book signing
    Wednesday, February 8, 6:30pm
    The Great Hall
    7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

    Patti Smith is a poet, artist, and musician. Her band, the Patti Smith Group helped to open up the New York musical scene, centered on the iconic rock venue CBGBs in the early 70s. Together the band produced four influential albums: Horses, Radio Ethiopia, Easter, and Wave. Patti is the author of Witt, Babel, Wool Gathering, The Coral Sea, and Complete, a catalog of lyrics, photographs, and reflections. Her drawings have been exhibited at the Robert Miller Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Auguries of Innocence is her first collection of poems since 1979.

  • Eugene Linden: The Winds of Change: Climate-Past Destroyer, Future Menace
    Lecture and book signing
    Monday, February 13, 6:30pm
    Wollman Auditorium
    51 Astor Place, 8th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues
    Free

    Abrupt climate change has destroyed civilizations in the past. The science of climate change is young, but it offers mounting evidence that climate change has wreaked havoc down through the centuries, interacting in subtle ways with disease, famine, and civil strife. The degree of risk from climate change hinges on society's ability (or inability) to adapt. Technologies exist to address threats to the environment such as fossil fuel emissions, greenhouse gases, methane, etc., but it takes political will to use them.

    Eugene Linden writes about environment, nature, science, and technology for Time (including numerous cover stories,) Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, Foreign Affairs, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, etc. He is the author of seven books including The Future in Plain Sight.

  • Matthew Bogdanos: Thieves of Baghdad
    Lecture and book signing
    Tuesday, February 28, 6:30pm
    Wollman Auditorium
    51 Astor Place, 8th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues
    Free

    When Baghdad fell, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, USMC, was in southern Iraq, tracking down terrorist networks through their financing and weapons smuggling-until he heard about the looting of the museum. Immediately setting out across the desert with an elite group chosen from his multiagency task force, he risked his career and his life in pursuit of Iraq's most priceless treasures. Written with William Patrick, Thieves of Baghdad exposes sordid truths about the international art and antiquities market. It also explores the soul of a man who is equal parts hardened Marine, dedicated father, and passionate scholar. Most of all, it demonstrates that, in a culture as old as that of the Middle East, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

    Matthew Bogdanos has been an assistant district attorney in Manhattan since 1988. A colonel in the Marine Reserves, middleweight boxer, and native New Yorker, he holds a degree in classics from Bucknell University, a law degree and a master's degree in Classical Studies from Columbia University, and a master's degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Recalled to active duty after September 11, 2001, he received a Bronze Star for counterterrorist operations in Afghanistan, and then served two tours in Iraq. Released back into the Reserves in October 2005, he returned to the DA's Office and continues the hunt for stolen antiquities.

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Did You Know?

  • The Aileron Center for Entrepreneurial Education near Dayton, Ohio, designed by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture+Design Partnership (Lee H. Skolnick, AR'79), is slated to open in 2007, was featured in the 12/20/5 eOCULUS.

  • NY1 technology reporter Adam Balkin interviewed Adrianne Wortzel, adjunct faculty, Albert Nerken School of Engineering, for a segment about her online work Eliza Redux. The segment first aired on January 23 and was repeated through the next day and following weekend. Information will also be on NY1 website and Eliza Redux is at http://elizaredux.org.

  • Professor Alan Wolf, Albert Nerken School of Engineering, led the team that installed an electronic sign on the Engineering Building to inform the community of events that are free and open to the public at Cooper Union.

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