Jay Coogan is an American artist and an academic currently serving as the third President of IYRS School of Technology & Trades. Coogan most recently had served as the sixteenth president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). Coogan is a native of Massachusetts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in visual arts from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. Following completion of his degree at Hunter College, he served as a faculty member, dean, and provost for the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

since 1982. He was appointed the president of MCAD from 2009 to 2018. At the Rhode Island School of Design, Coogan held several positions including: professor of sculpture, dean of fine arts, and provost. He also received praise from the president of RISD who claimed he was one of the most valuable contributors to that school. Coogan's main focus coming into the MCAD as the new president was to "strengthen the College's regional connections, building new partnerships, and elevating MCAD's reputation as a leader in discovering and developing creative talent". Jay was President of the IYRS School of Technology & Trades in Newport, Rhode Island from 2018 to 2023. IYRS has its roots in yacht restoration—its original name was the International Yacht Restoration School—but since its founding in 1993, it has expanded to include programs in marine systems, composites technology, and digital modeling and fabrication. The breadth of the IYRS program shows in the range of projects its graduates are pursuing. Aside from his administrative work Coogan creates sculpture, drawings, paintings and functional works. Coogan's sculptural objects, installations, and functional works have been shown in solo shows at the Monique Knowlton Gallery, Helander Gallery and Hal Bromm Gallery in New York. He has had work shown at the Fort Worth Art Museum, Chrysler Museum, Queens Museum, Nassau County Museum, and the Jacksonville Art Museum. His public commissions include works for the cities

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Providence, and Green Bay. Coogan had his first solo art show in New York in 1982, at the Monique Knowlton Gallery, where he worked between painting and sculpture using wood, aluminum, and steel. Coogan discusses his inspirations for creating his shapes in sculpting, which include "Canal Street stores, grocery stores, anthropological museums and objects found on the beach." The New York Times wrote an article about Coogan's artwork in 1982, discussing his art.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coogan, Jay Living people Artists from Massachusetts Brown University alumni Hunter College alumni Rhode Island School of Design faculty Year of birth missing (living people)