Firelei Báez A'04

Photo of Firelei Báez

Firelei Báez A'04, who is the Fall 2022 Alex Katz Chair in Painting and a 2004 alumna of the School of Art, presents a talk about her practice on November 30, 2022 at the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at The Cooper Union. Through her process of painting and drawing in layers of material and narrative, Báez unearth women’s stories in the African Diaspora. Image and literary research inform conversations about resistance, climate, and healing while making connections between humans and nature. In recent years, Báez’s work has expanded into immersive installations providing critical interventions across disciplines. To read more and register for the talk, please click here.

  • 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.