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Steven Lam

Associate Dean

Steven Lam is a curator, artist, educator, and is the Associate Dean at The Cooper Union. He has an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine and has taught performance and sound theory in the Art History and Theory Department at the School of Visual Arts, NYC. Lam has developed exhibitions primarily for non-profit institutions and universities, often prioritizing his experience working in such pedagogical programs. His recent curatorial projects have focused on geo-zones outside Euro-America (such as China and Hong Kong) including his involvement with the curatorial team for the Third Guangzhou Triennial. Lam was a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program as well as a Lori Ledis Curatorial Fellow at Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn. Recent curatorial work and collaborations in New York include Tainted Love with critic Virginia Solomon at La MaMa Galleria, NYC; For Reasons of State at the Kitchen, NYC; and Spectral Evidence at Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.

  • 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.