Elaine Breiger Perlov A'70

Elaine Breiger passed away on May 24, 2026. As a printmaker, she taught at the School of Visual Arts for 40 years and showed her art at the Pace and Martha Jackson galleries, as well as in group shows at the Smithsonian Institute and the Brooklyn Museum. Elaine's prints were made from a pastiche of smaller pieces that created abstract mountainscapes slashed through with movement, light, and color. In the early 1970s, she introduced intaglio printing in children's art classes and developed an etching program at the Y. She was also active into her 80s, running 27 New York City marathons, dancing to hip hop, and consistently working out in the gym. Elaine is survived by her close friends and great-nieces and nephews. Read more about Elaine 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.