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Facilities

Drawing classroom in 41 Cooper Square

Drawing classroom in 41 Cooper Square

The School of Art is primarily housed in the 1859 landmark Foundation Building. Additional classroomsand student studio spaces, the Computer Studio, the Herb Lubalin Study Center, and the 41 Cooper Gallery are housed across the street at 41 Cooper Square. The studios, classrooms, shops, and labs of the School of Art offer complete facilities for a visual arts education. A professional staff of technical assistants is available in many of these facilities seven days a week to provide help and guidance to students in the School of Art, and to provide a healthy and safe working environment.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.