2025
Lillian Wald Humanities Symposium: PASA Long Table and Lillian Wald Panel @ Abrons Art Center  

On April 8th from 12 - 2 PM, the People's Institute for the Advancement of Science and Art (PASA), a collaboration between The Cooper Union Library and Henry Street Settlement, hosted a PASA Long Table – an open dialogue in The Cooper Union Library between Henry Street Settlement community partners; Art, Architecture, and Engineering students, faculty, and staff; as well as the surrounding community to discuss this year's Lillian Wald Symposium theme, “Can artists survive in NYC?” The conversation explored the question, “Can those involved in creative practice, regardless of discipline or field, survive in NYC?” 

Following the Long Table at Cooper, on April 9th from 6 - 8 PM, those that attended the event at Cooper Union went to the annual Lillian Wald Symposium at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center where Maura Cuffie-Peterson, director of strategic initiatives, guaranteed income, Creatives Rebuild New York, Anne del Castillo, senior policy advisor, creative sector strategy, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Ashley Ferro-Murray, arts program director, Doris Duke Foundation, Nile Harris, Abrons Arts Center Performance AIRspace resident, 2022–23, and Sharon Zukin, sociologist and author discussed our topic and theme for 2025. The conversation was moderated by Valentina Di Liscia, news editor of Hyperallergic.

To see the prompts for our discussion and view the reading list accompanying this year's event, click HERE. Those books will be made available at the Cooper Library in the tradition of the old reading room that established the library at Cooper at the founding of the original People's Institute.



2024

Lenape Cultural Center Discussions and Proposals

Co-Lab and Longtable with David Fortin (University of Waterloo); George and Brent Stonefish, elders and organizers of the Lenape Community; Brian Martin (Monash University and the International Indigenous Design Charter); Ninad Pandit (Cooper Union); Jack Tchen (Rutgers University, Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture).  

Long tables were held in the Cooper Archives and twith he Humanities and Social Sciences at Cooper Union. 20+ architecture students, organizers, and representatives participated from the Lenape Community, the International Indigenous Design Charter, and PASA affiliates to discuss and critique proposals for a Lenape Cultural Center in Prospect Park (Brooklyn, New York) and the United Nations HQ (New York, New York).