The Saturday Outreach Program
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, a self-made inventor and industrialist who believed that "education should be as free as air or water," The Cooper Union is one of the few colleges in the country to offer all of its students full-tuition scholarships while maintaining an international reputation for excellence and innovation in education.

Cooper Union School of Art undergraduates established The Saturday Outreach Program in 1968, responding to the acute need for visual arts education in the New York City school system. Now serving 450 students annually, the program offers free intensive courses that give students both the tools and the support they need to build confidence, improve their skills, and meet high expectations. The teaching staff follows a curriculum that gives students a historical grounding in visual arts, an understanding of the contemporary art world, and the tools to access and participate in diverse cultural experiences.

Participants come from more than 100 New York City high schools and may be accepted without prior training in art. The faculty comprises professional artists and Cooper Union School of Art undergraduates, who teach courses in drawing, painting, graphics, sculpture, architecture, and portfolio preparation. All materials are provided without charge, and each session culminates in a public exhibition of students' works. College counseling; writing workshops; and visits to museums, galleries, and studios round out the program. Recruitment of students with the fewest opportunities in the arts is critical to the program's mission. High schools receive extensive information, and representatives make onsite visits that bring the program to life. Each year, an Artist-Teacher Residency provides three New York City arts teachers with individual studio space during the summer, further increasing awareness of the program.

The Saturday Outreach Program enables inner-city students to compete on a national level for admission to the country's best colleges. A remarkable 80 percent of participants go on to college, and every year between 8 and 20 students are accepted into Cooper Union's highly selective Schools of Art and Architecture.