Lenore (Goldman) Simon A'51

Lenore (Goldman) Simon passed away on August 2, 2024 at the age of 96. During Lenore’s seven-decade career as an artist, she worked in a variety of media, including monoprint, assemblage, serigraph aquatint, drypoint, ink, mixed media, and, most recently, an adept foray into digital art. She proudly spoke of a Cooper Union acceptance examination requirement to do a sculpture. "Someone had to go to a restroom, brushed by me, and the piece fell on the floor. I picked it up, somewhat horrified, and looked at it and I said 'it's a bird!' It suggested a bird, and so I went with it. Sure enough, I got into Cooper Union!" This was Lenore's exuberance and resilience in art and life.

 

  • 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.