The Cooper Union




Announcements from The Cooper Union

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  • Great Evenings in The Great Hall presents WORKERS' RIGHTS with Journalist Pete Hamill 9/17
    Journalist Pete Hamill and Tony nominee Maria Tucci lead a cast of notables including The Triangle Fire Remembrance Coalition in celebrating America’s labor movement as seen through the eyes of its most ardent advocates: Clara Lemlich, Samuel Gompers, Eugene V. Debs and Mother Jones, in Workers' Rights, a Great Evenings in The Great Hall presentation at The Cooper Union. Historic photographs and documents complement the powerful words that advanced a movement and the stirring voices of the New York City Labor Chorus will recreate the songs that signaled the changing times. Lauren Keating is the director.
  • Wall Street Journal reports on Cooper Union's endowment strategy
    The Wall Street Journal, Money & Investing section, profiled Cooper Union's endowment strategy led by the administration and Board of Trustees' Investment Committee endowment. After many hours of interviews with President George Campbell and Trustee John Michaelson, Reporter John Hechinger wrote about the college's historic policy of charging no tuition, 41 Cooper Square and the launching of new academic programs. Hechinger sites that these expansions stem from "Cooper's decision three years ago to ratchet back the financial risk in its endowment, enabling it to avoid the losses that have racked its peers."
  • Cooper Union's Formula SAE race car at World Science Festival street fair June 14
    Congratulations to Cooper Union's savvy team of engineering students who finished in the top third of the 2009 Formula SAE (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers) race car competition in Michigan. A year-long project led by Professor George Delagrammatikas, the talented students designed and built the race car in the Cooper Union labs from scratch, where they tackled a diverse range of high level challenges from fabrication and advanced analysis to sponsorship and marketing the Formula race car to a panel of judges. Cooper Union was one of thirty teams to successfully complete all events at the Formula SAE Race Car and, for this outstanding accomplishment, the team was formally recognized at the awards ceremony by the Formula SAE organization.

    Fourth year student of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering Dennis Robertson said, "Working on the SAE Formula race car is a great project to get involved with at Cooper Union. It gives students the much needed hands on engineering experience that they'll need out in the real-world, while still in school."

    On June 14th, Cooper Union's SAE Formula race car will be on display at the World Science Festival Street Fair at Washington Square Park. Members of the team will be available to provide hands-on demonstration of how the race car and its vehicle parts work, with an emphasis on the fundamental principles that go into their design and the importance of math and science in designing a car. In full racing gear, one of the Cooper Union students will rev the engines and talk about the critical subsystems needed and other safeguards.

    The World Science Festival, an annual event seeking to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science and its wonders, provides an exciting array of stimulating, educational programming from June 10-June 14, 2009, 10am-6pm. For the second year, Cooper Union is participating as a University Partner, along with other New York institutions of higher education. More information about the World Science Festival and its scheduled events, including Cooper Union's SAE Formula race car, is available at: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2009/all-events-by-date
  • New York Times review celebrates architecture of 41 Cooper Square
    The New York Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff reviewed Cooper Union's new building at 41 Cooper Square and he describes it as "a bold architectural statement of genuine civic value." It appeared on the first page of the WeekendArts, Fine Arts/Leisure section on Friday, June 6. A slide show spotlighting many of the building's outstanding architectural features also appears on The New York Times website and provides a variety of unique angles of the new academic facility.
  • Cooper Union in the Media: The New York Times, WABC and The Chronicle of Higher Education
    The New York Times ran a prominent feature spotlighting the Cooper Union's 150 year commitment to academic excellence and the recent surge in admission applications. With insight from President Campbell as well as faculty and students, the article encapsulates the interdisciplinary nature of the college and the importance of providing every admitted student with a full-tuition scholarship. Coverage of The Cooper Union by The New York Times continued with a blog article showcasing the college's new logo, designed by School of Art graduate Stephen Doyle and his pioneering firm Doyle Partners. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently profiled the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture's Professor Emerita Sue Ferguson Gussow and her drawing seminar. The comprehensive article addressed the importance of incorporating freehand drawing into architecture curriculum, and a slide show of Professor Gussow's class is available to viewers on the Chronicle's website. The East Village's local paper, The Villager, reported on the launch of Cooper Union's 150th anniversary celebration and featured exciting photographs of The Cooper Union Step Team. Most recently, an in-depth segment on Cooper Union aired on WABC-Channel 7 Eyewitness News, where Dr. Campbell discussed how the college is able to provide a full tuition scholarship, even during times of economic distress, and students talked about the impact the scholarship has had in their lives and academic studies.
  • Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache, an exhibition exploring politics and art (10/29-12/6)
    The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art School of Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Lene Berg titled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache. Primarily comprised of works related to two projects reflecting on artistic and cultural production during the Cold War era, Berg's exhibition provokes discussion on the relationship between art and politics, in recent history and in the contemporary moment.

    Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache is also the title of the most prominent work in the exhibition: a series of banners that will flank the south facade of Cooper Union's Foundation Building at Third Avenue and East 7th Street (dimensions: 40'W x 52'H and weighing 75 lbs). The banners reference Pablo Picasso's 1953 portrait of Joseph Stalin commissioned by Louis Aragon, editor of the Parisian newspaper Les Lettres Francaises. Like Picasso, Aragon was a member of the French Communist Party and wished to memorialize Stalin's death on the front page the newspaper. The large-scale banner of Picasso's portrait of Stalin re-introduces an image that, in its original release, wreaked political havoc in the Communist Party, the art world, and the press. Berg's consideration of the portrait poses questions about political portraiture, how contemporary art relates to real world politics, and the power of representation.

    In the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery on the second floor of Cooper Union's Foundation Building, are two continuously screening video installations accompanied by related publications. Berg provides a detailed account of the personal, political, artistic, and media implications of Picasso's simple drawing of Stalin in the video Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache. Opposite the projection of Stalin by Picasso is The Man in the Background in which Berg presents historic footage about art and propaganda during the Cold War, specifically the publication of the cultural journal 'Encounter' that was founded in 1953 as one of the undertakings of the Congress of Cultural Freedom (1950-1967), an anti-Communist advocacy group initiated by the CIA.

    A panel discussion is being organized for late November in which the artist will discuss her intentions in highlighting Picasso's historic portrait of Stalin, the role of the media in Picasso's expulsion from the Communist party, and the power of Stalin's image today.

    This exhibition has been made possible with public funds generously provided by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway. Additional support is provided by Laarsen+Pilgaard.

    Banner Installation Event: Sunday, October 26, 2008, 11 a.m.-Noon
    Exhibition Opening: Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery, Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 6-9 p.m.
    Exhibition hours: 10/29-12/6, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
  • Cooper Union surpasses Mayor Bloomberg's challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
    The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is pleased to announce today that the college has surpassed New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its building operations by 30 percent by 2017. As one of the Mayor's "PlaNYC Challenge Partners," The Cooper Union is already leading by example with the construction of its new academic building, New York City's first green academic laboratory building. Originally designed for LEED Silver certification, Cooper Union has incorporated environmentally sophisticated technologies that bolstered the new academic building's standards to LEED Gold, with the possibility of achieving LEED Platinum-the highest level rating in the U.S. Green Building Council system.

    "As a member of the Mayor's 'PlaNYC Challenge Partners,' The Cooper Union will reduce its greenhouse gas emission by more than 40 percent by 2010," said Cooper Union's President George Campbell Jr. "In addition to our new academic building which will likely achieve LEED Platinum, we are in the process of retrofitting Cooper Union's historic Foundation Building to include many environmental upgrades, such as a cogeneration plant and advanced control systems. The two building together will enable us to go beyond the Mayor's goal much earlier than the target date of 2017."

    The challenge, issued by city government as "30 in 10," sets into motion an ambitious goal for selected leading New York institutions to cut carbon dioxide emissions and incorporate energy-saving technologies. Cooper Union's new academic building, designed by 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis, will be a nine-story, technologically advanced academic facility. When completed in Spring 2009, the 175,000 square-foot, block-long academic building will be 40 percent more energy efficient than standard, similar-sized buildings and will include a cogeneration plant, radiant ceiling heating and cooling panels, a green roof, a full-height atrium, an operable building skin made of perforated stainless steel panels and other state-of-the-art sustainable technologies. Housing Cooper Union's Albert Nerken School of Engineering-ranked among the top three undergraduate engineering schools in the nation-as well as providing institutional space for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Art and the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, the new academic building will replace more than one-third of Cooper Union's academic space.
  • Watch us build!
    You can watch work on our new academic building via our webcam.
  • Cooper Union partners with the inaugural World Science Festival
    Cooper Union is participating in the inaugural World Science Festival as a supportive university partner. The World Science Festival is an unprecedented celebration of science that brings together many of the world's greatest minds in science, business, public policy and culture to radically transform public perceptions of science. The five-day long program will take place at various venues all over Manhattan, including a daylong street fair on May 31. With more than 40 events for all ages and interests, there are guaranteed to be topics that will engage everyone.
  • Barack Obama delivers policy address at The Cooper Union
    Barack Obama, U.S. Senator from Illinois and one of two candidates for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, made a major economic policy announcement in the fourth program of The Cooper Union Dialogue Series. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, introduced by Dr. Ronald W. Drucker (CE'62), chairman of our Board of Trustees, introduced the senator. The event was reported in top tier outlets across the nation as well as local press including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, The New York Sun, Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Marketwatch, NY1, New York Post, New York Daily News, WABC-Ch.7, WNBC-Ch.4 and WCBS-Ch 2. Click here to view pictures of the event.
  • Cooper Union in The New York Times: "Square Feet" and "Learning Architecture"
    The New York Times "Square Feet" column featured a profile on how President Campbell and the Board of Trustees used the college's real estate assets to preserve the college's mission of providing every student with a full tuition scholarship.
    A video about Cooper Union students' new learning environment—our new academic building construction site—is featured in the City Room section online.
  • Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin is eighth annual Menschel lecturer
    On January 30, Robert E. Rubin, who served in the White House during the Clinton Administration as assistant to the president for economic policy, the 70th United States secretary of the Treasury and the first director of the National Economic Council, spoke at The Cooper Union's 8th annual Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Lecture on “The U.S. Economy in an Era of Global Economic Transformation." Rubin's talk was followed by a stimulating Q&A with the audience and next-day online media coverage by Bloomberg News.