Campaign Statement

Passionate about the arts and education, Claudia was inspired by the Free Cooper Union/Save Cooper Union movements to become actively involved, attending CUAA Council open meetings, helping out with last year’s Founders Day “Family Art Table”, which was a huge success, and donating multiple photographic images for the Committee to Save Cooper Union (CSCU) fundraiser as well as donating to the fund to support the lawsuit. A graduate of the High School of Music and Art, a New York native and true-blue Bronx girl, Claudia is thrilled to reconnect with her Alma Mater and to participate with the OFFICIAL CUAA, to lend whatever passion and wisdom she may have accumulated over the decades to support the uninterrupted vision of our school’s Founder, Peter Cooper of a merit-based, full-tuition scholarship for future generations of gifted artists, designers, inventors, thinkers, and innovators.

Bio

Claudia F Giordano, A’76, is a certified art educator who taught for 29 years in NYC public schools, working with students from K-12 across every borough. In addition to teaching, and serving as a high school Dean of Security, she was a union rep, serving in a variety of elected leadership positions in several different schools. Now retired, Claudia is a founding member of the recently formed UFT Solidarity Caucus which is addressing the inequities and abuses facing NYC public school teachers and teachers nationwide, under attack by ed “deformers” and public school privatizers. She has continued to practice painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture, and has amassed – and published/exhibited some of – many, many photographic images over many, many years.

Continuing her education she earned her MFA in Painting in 1979 from Brooklyn College, studying with Lee Bontecou and Allan D’Arcangelo; graduate education studies at Hunter College, and over the course of her teaching career numerous arts, literacy, technology, and museum education workshops, courses, and conferences; in 2000 she received a Professional Diploma in School Administration as a graduate of Fordham University, VIA 2000 -Visionary Instructional Administration – Program. Claudia has travelled often, practicing art, video, and studying Italian, in Rome and Urbino, Italy, working in non-toxic printmaking in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Solar Plate printmaking with Dan Weldon in Florence, as well as numerous visits to the lovely Land Down Under where her spouse resides. An East Village resident since 1975, her photos taken in the city after September 11, 2001 were included in a nationwide traveling exhibition and book (The September 11 Photo Project) and are archived in The New York Public Library. 1986-1991 she was a frequent lighting designer, scenic artist, props creator, photographer, technician, and occasional performer at The WOW Cafe Theatre Collective on East 4th Street. She was also a member of the East Village artist group Women In Limbo, formed in the mid-1980’s, producing art salons, panel discussions with East Village gallerists, and culminating in the all-women art exhibition Private Into Public in 1991 at Minor Injury Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.