Colonnade Exhibition for Books That Live

Sat, Oct 21, 2023 9am - Fri, Nov 17, 2023 9am

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Colonnade Windows

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., the nation's largest independent, employee-owned publisher, traces its origins straight to The Cooper Union's Great Hall. Commemorating the publisher's 100th anniversary, a new exhibition in the colonnade of the Foundation Building highlights the many different storytellers who have attended The Cooper Union or spoken from the Great Hall stage over the years, including Norton authors such as Neil Gaiman and Emily Wilson.

Gaiman and Wilson came to the Great Hall on October 17 for a conversation about about the power of storytelling, which was moderated by Maria Dhavana Headley. The program,"Books That Live," was supported by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation and celebrated storytellers across the ages.

View an online gallery of images from the colonnade exhibition here.

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  • 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.