William and Noma Copley Foundation

William Nelson Copley (1919-1996) was a Surrealist painter, art collector, and philanthropist. Noma Ratner Copley (1916-2006) was a fine art jewelry designer and art collector. She was introduced to William Copley by their mutual friend Man Ray in 1951. They married in 1953 and resided in France until 1962, when they moved to New York.

In 1954, they began the William and Noma Copley Foundation (renamed the Cassandra Foundation in 1966), which was incorporated in Chicago as a nonprofit organization. Its mission was to aid and encourage emerging artists in the fields of painting, sculpture and music composition. Grants were awarded by a board of directors based on nominations made by advisers, including Jean Arp, Alfred Barr, Jr., Matta Echaurren, Max Ernst, Julien Levy, William Lieberman, Man Ray, Roland Penrose and Sir Herbert Read. The officers and directors were William Copley, Noma Copley, Marcel Duchamp, Barnet Hodes, Eleanor Hodes and Darius Milhaud. Music and art award responsibilities were divided between husband and wife. Noma Copley was chiefly responsible for music grants and collaborated with Milhaud, while William Copley generally made the final decisions on the visual art grants.

The Foundation also published a series of monographs from 1960 to 1966 to highlight their grantees. The British Pop artist Richard Hamilton was chosen as editor, not only for his well-known talents in layout and design, but also for the respect given him by the international art community as one of Duchamp's protégés. A total of 10 monographs were published on Hans Bellmer, Richard Lindner, Bernard Pfriem, René Magritte, Thomas Albert Sills, Eduardo Paolozzi, James Metcalf, Serge Charchoune, Jacques Hérold and Dieter Roth.

After William Copley decided to distance himself from philanthropy and focus his activities back on his own art, Barnet Hodes assumed his responsibilities at the Foundation in 1966. William and Noma Copley divorced in 1967, and William Copley continued his career as a Surrealist artist. He sold much of the art collection at auctions in 1979 and 1993 and died in Florida in 1996. Noma Copley pursued a career in goldsmithing and fine art jewelry after their divorce. She died in New York in 2006.