Statement

Michael supports a return to the merit-based full tuition scholarship mission at Cooper Union.

Michael supports an independent Alumni Association that can provide support and advocacy for Peter Cooper’s mission.

Bio

While at Cooper, Michael’s academic focus was on painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and calligraphy. He has since pursued a career in advertising, advocacy and public relations while also creating work for gallery exhibition and site-specific public art installations. His art projects have involved travel to economically distressed, war-torn regions of Latin America: he knows what it feels like to get shot at with his own tax dollars.  Antonin Scalia wrote the 8-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision awarding Michael a victory in a 1st Amendment battle to get a public art work exhibited.

He has spent 4 years as a fracktivist, helping a community in Dimock PA to file a lawsuit over drinking water contamination and keeping the environmental justice case in the global media spotlight for 18 months. He wrote, directed and produced a 30 second ad that got picked up by Yoko Ono / Artists Against Fracking for use in New York State. Fracking was recently “banned” in NY by Governor Cuomo.

He currently is freelancing as a creative director in healthcare marketing while working on two film scripts, and is leading a new business startup.