Continuing Education

students painting

Fall term registration is open.

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Since 1859, The Cooper Union has been offering courses to New Yorkers who want to create something new or disrupt something old. Here, you can study fine arts, graphic arts, illustration, typography, creative coding, and information design. 

Courses

If you have questions about classes, please write to continuing@cooper.edu.

The American system of continuing education originated at The Cooper Union with its founding in 1859. Peter Cooper, inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, wanted to bring first-class educational opportunities to adults in New York and devoted his entire fortune to that goal. For over 150 years, The Cooper Union has maintained this tradition of outstanding courses for adults in its Department of Continuing Education

The Cooper Union is holding some classes online and some on-campus. 

IMPORTANT: to participate in classes on campus, please be prepared to arrive up to 30 minutes early on the first class to present proof of vaccination & booster in the lobby of 41 Cooper Square. School policy no longer requires mask wearing. 

Continuing Education allows Cooper staff and students to take one free class per term (fall, spring, summer) so long as there’s an open place. Paid students will get priority, but we sometimes have classes that don’t fill to capacity. If interested, email Simone Meltesen (simone.meltesen@cooper.edu) about a class you would like to take and she will update you as to availability as the first session approaches.

  • 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.