Brian Rose A’79

Running for: Nominating Committee

Campaign Statement

When I first was elected to the CUAA council, the Cooper community was in crisis, and the financial viability of the school was in doubt. I was a strong supporter of the lawsuit that resulted in the consent decree putting Cooper on a renewed course back to free tuition. Although we are in a much better place now under Laura Sparks’ leadership, the future depends on our continued vigilance and active alumni participation.

Biography

Born in Virginia, Brian Rose moved to New York City in 1977 to attend Cooper Union. In 1980, he photographed the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and later participated in a survey of the Financial District, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Rose has since undertaken a number of long-term projects in Europe including documenting the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, the rebuilding of Berlin, and the urban landscape of Amsterdam.

In response to the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Rose photographed Atlantic City, the scene of Trump’s bankrupt casinos. That work was published by Circa Press in 2019. In 2020, Rose photographed the last days of the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond also published by Circa Press. Rose’s images have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.