Nicholas Sanso

Professor Tenneriello

IDC EMWBH

November 17, 2013

A Concrete Confessional For a Sinner

Art and Business are like an old married couple. They can’t live together and they can’t survive apart. They are always together, but never have the same views. As you might expect, they often conflict. On the lower East side, however, this conflict is raging at the cost of a future generation of artists and the reputation of a well-established school.

That established school is The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Arts and Sciences. In 1859, Peter Cooper founded The Cooper Union, a school that was renown for three bold policies, providing free quality education, admitting female applicants, and admitting minorities (Cooper Union). If decades of struggling for equal rights and equal pay have made Cooper’s stand, that women and minorities should be treated equally, more commonplace, the rapidly rising cost of an undergraduate degree has made his belief in a free education, nothing short of revolutionary.

True to its founder’s goal, for the last 150 years, Cooper Union has given a full scholarship to every student in its art and engineering programs and has been an undeniably successful strategy in terms of academics. In fact, The Cooper Union model has propelled the school to the number one college in the North East (according to Forbes) and produced many distinguished artists including J Abbot Miller, Milton Glaser, and Alex Katz.

While the school has always been one of the epicenters for art, in mid October, Cooper Union once again showcased the consequences that stem from the discord between art and business. On Monday, October 12, Banksy erected a new piece of artwork, “Concrete Confessional” right in front of The Cooper Union. Now for those not familiar with Banksy’s work, Banksy is a street artist whose work often aims at criticizing politics and society. Banksy also fully understands the importance of his artwork’s location. For instance, in a passive-aggressive move, Banksy moved a statue of a boy shinning Ronald McDonald’s shoes to the front door of a different McDonald’s outlet each day for a month. With that in mind, one must wonder why he placed his “Concrete Confessional” in front of The Cooper Union. The piece is a small concrete confessional with a picture of a repentant and downtrodden priest inside. Thus, Banksy is asking us to wonder who the confessional is for and what “sins” has that person committed. While Banksy rarely explains his work and has not offered an explanation for this particular piece, the explanation seems pretty clear cut when you consider Cooper Union’s more recent history.

Since the Recession, Cooper Union’s financials have been as shaky as the economy and the school now runs on a twelve million dollar deficit. While the land under the Chrysler building, one of Cooper Union’s largest assets, will mitigate their deficit over the next few years, the land will not keep them out of the red. After reviewing  what Liliana Leonforte, a high school advisory member, called every stitch of Cooper’s financials, Cooper Union was forced to raise their tuition a staggering $20,000(Kaminer, College Ends Free Tuition and an Era). The school’s exorbitant tuition hike is necessary to cover the financial needs of their lower income students and operating expenses. While this price tag might still seem cheap when compared to NYU Tisch’s $70,000 a year price tag, Cooper’s cost does not account for the food, housing, and transportation services that NYU provides. For an aspiring art major with their eyes on Cooper, the price tag of his or her degree costs something closer to $35,000 a year or $140,000 in total, a far cry from free.

Thus, it seems logical that Banksy’s decisions to move his piece “Concrete Confessional” squarely in front of Cooper is a statement to the administration. It seems as if Banksy is saying that the administration has sinned by instituting a tuition and should repent for their mistake. At the same time, Banksy seems to be criticizing the bleakness of the situation by using a confessional made entirely out of concrete with a priest who looks to be praying in what is truly a desperate manner. In the eyes of Banksy, the situation seems to be despicable and urgent.

But Banksy’s art piece is not the first sign of protest, only the newest. For weeks following the decision to institute tuition in May, Cooper Union students have been protesting in a variety of ways. In an “Occupy Wall Street” manner, students worked, slept and ate in the CEO’s office for weeks, ignoring armed guards and threats from the College(Kaminer, Protestors Still in Top Office At Cooper Union). Similarly, at graduation, over one half of the graduating class turned their backs to President Jamushed Barucha during his final speech(Kingkade). However, while the demonstrations were frequent and emotional during the first two months, in many ways, the fight against tuition had fizzled over the summer. Thus, Banksy’s piece has not only reignited a cooling movement, but provided the framework for a much more modern type of protest, one that was quickly adopted by his younger contemporaries at Cooper.

Amazed by what one student, Samantha Duarte, called “a perfectly suited method of protest,” the students on the lower east side quickly organized to create a version of Banksy’s piece that would clarify the artist’s and their own message. Thus, by the end of the weekend, the art students at Cooper Union had erected another concrete confessional(Semuels). Their interpretation of Banksy’s piece was identical in every aspect except the priest. Where Banksy’s work presented a nameless priest begging for forgiveness, the student’s interpretation depicts President Jamushed Barucha praying to be absolved. The piece is a provocative insult that directs Banksys message directly to the top officials at Cooper and serves as a much more blunt showcase for the student body’s disapproval of charging a tuition.

While Banksy’s piece certainly speaks to the controversial and powerful nature that an art piece can assume, sparking a second wave of protests against Cooper’s tuition, for the next generation of artists, their chances at a free education seem slim. Hopefully though, Peter Cooper’s first belief that people should have access to free quality education, like his beliefs on equality, will come to fruition.

Works Cited

 

“Cooper Union.” History. Cooper Union, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

 

Kaminer, Airel. “College Ends Free Tuition, and an Era.” New York Times, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

 Kaminer, Ariel. “Tuition Protesters Still In Top Office at Cooper Union.” New York Times, 24 May 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

 Semuels, Alana. “New Yorkers Hustle to Catch Banksy Street Art.” L.A. Times, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.