Come see classrooms and studios of The Cooper Union transformed into exhibition spaces showcasing work from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, the School of Art and the Albert Nerken School of Engineering.

Located throughout The Foundation Building (7 East 7th Street), and 41 Cooper Square.

Exhibition Hours:

Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 7pm

Closed Sundays and Mondays

Three graduating students of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture -- Arta Perezic, Dustin Atlas and J.A. Alonzo -- talk about their thesis proposals and where they are headed next.

IDEAS CITY explores the future of cities around the globe with culture as a driving force. Founded by the New Museum in 2011, it is a major collaborative initiative between hundreds of arts, education, and civic organizations centered on the belief that culture is fundamentally vital to urban growth and innovation. The Festival builds on the New Museum's mission of "New Art, New Ideas" by expanding the Museum beyond its walls into the civic realm.

The theme of this year's Festival is The Invisible City. During three days of conferences, debates, workshops, performances, and architectural and artistic interventions, IDEAS CITY will explore questions of transparency and surveillance, citizenship and representation, expression and suppression, and the enduring quest for visibility. The Festival will reconfigure the Bowery neighborhood into a multi-platform incubator that asks a collective public to explore issues faced by the city, propose solutions, and seed concrete actions.

The Festival kicks off with a series of talks, panels, discussions, and short films at the Great Hall of The Cooper Union. Speakers will include some of the world's most forward-thinking visionaries, who will discuss key civic issues and formulate action for the city of tomorrow.  learn more ...

On the second day, the morning's keynote speech in the Great Hall by The Honorable Julián Castro, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will lead into an afternoon of workshops and an evening of rapid-fire pitches for new urban initiatives, dance battles, hot-air balloon performances, spoken word, and immersive video and sound installations. The invisible undercurrents of urban life will come alive throughout the Lower East Side and Little Italy as IDEAS CITY takes over a basilica and a former gym, ending just before the break of dawn.  learn more ... 

One hundred cultural and community groups will transform the streetscape around the Bowery neighborhood into a temporary city of ideas, redefining public space through participatory programming and unexpected structures for gathering, several of which will be constructed from normally invisible commercial materials. Free and open to the public, all ages.

Cooper Union students and faculty will be participating in the following events: