41 Cooper Square Galleries

Located in the new academic building at 41 Cooper Square, the 41 Cooper Gallery features large, two-story windows offering views from the building’s entrance and an abundance of natural light. Along with the adjacent Herb Lubalin Gallery and Jacques & Natasha Gelman Exhibition Foyer, the 41 Cooper Gallery supports the pedagogy of the School of Art and serves as a highly visible site of artistic activity for the Cooper Union community, neighborhood and city at large.

  • 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.