Summer Art Intensive

The Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive 2025 dates will be announced soon. 

For information about the scholarship application, please click here. 

In the meantime, subscribe to our mailing list to receive announcements directly!

To view courses being offered in 2024, visit the courses page. For questions about email us at summerartintensive@cooper.edu.

The Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive offers high school students (rising sophomores to rising seniors) the opportunity to immerse themselves in art-making in an art college environment with professional instruction alongside classmates who share their passion for art and design. Current Cooper Union undergraduates serve as teaching assistants to support student success enriching the student experience. Visit the instructor page to learn more about our dedicated and talented faculty. 

Students in the program choose from the concentration sections with courses in Drawing, Animation, Digital Photography, Graphic Design, Studio Practice (for rising seniors). Students in the Animation, Digital Photography, and Graphic Design sections also study drawing (except for those enrolled in the stand-alone half day Digital Photography course). All students participate in special focus workshops each week, social events with refreshments served, field trips to museums, galleries, and artists’ studios. Visiting artists and designers will present their work to classes and in the final week of the program, an exhibition will be mounted showcasing program-created work, and for the celebratory opening (or closing) event we will invite family, friends, and colleagues to view and congratulate the artists. All materials and museum entry fees are included in tuition. Click here to learn more about the program structure and to see class descriptions.  

The Summer Art Intensive will be held on The Cooper Union campus in the vibrant East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Students in the program will have a firsthand look at the studio spaces and classrooms that Cooper Union undergraduates utilize. 

The program will run from July 8 through August 1, Mondays to Thursdays, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm with a lunch break of one hour. Classes are limited to 16 students  

The Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive does not provide housing on campus, meal plans, or college credits. The program can provide a letter of completion upon request.  

Consent forms (program participation permissions) and a code of conduct will be sent to parents/guardians for signature. Request for signatures will be handled by email before the start of the program. 

Contact us at Summerartintensive@cooper.edu

Office Hours

9:00AM–5:00PM

Monday–Friday

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  • 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.