A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
Through April 3, Georgetown University’s Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery is exhibiting work by photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode who attended Pratt from 1980 to 82. Influenced by fellow Pratt alumnus Robert Mapplethorpe, he created stylized portraits of Black men before his death at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Zakariya Abdul-Qadir, MFA Fine Arts, Painting/Drawing ’25, was selected as a 2026 Bronx Museum AIM Fellow. “Cut, tear, paste, stitch: Through methods of painting, printmaking, and installation, Zakariya Abdul-Qadir collects source images (archival mining)— disassembling the narrative — to reflect a through line connecting a culture of Blackness and America.”
Visiting Assistant Professor in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment Michael Hiller was interviewed by NY1 for a segment on the discovery of a safe house that was used by the Underground Railroad. “I’ve been practicing historical preservation law for 30 years, and this is a generational find. This is the most significant find in historic preservation in my career, and it’s very important that we preserve this,” Hiller said.
Pratt’s Family and Parent Engagement Program was selected as the Silver Award Winner for the Alumni, Community Relations, Family Programs, Fundraising, and related category in the NASPA Excellence Awards for “innovative initiatives that relate to the programs, policies, procedures, best practices, or services that relate to alumni relations, community relations, family programs, fundraising, and related units.” In an email, NASPA shared that it “is appreciative of the work that [Pratt is] doing to benefit students and transform higher education. By receiving this Silver Award for the Family Engagement program, [Pratt] demonstrated [its] commitment to strengthening and advancing the student affairs profession.”
Archinect covered the Lever Long Enough to Move the World: Sketches in Contemporary Architecture exhibition on display in Higgins Hall. “The curatorial framework proposes that sketches act as ‘levers,’ enabling architects to assert the physical and material dimensions of architecture within an increasingly digital and dematerialized design environment. Despite their small scale and provisional nature, sketches are presented as tools capable of exerting influence disproportionate to their size.”
Rickie Gao, Ray Chen, Anniella Pettingill, and Rachel Genito, all BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’26, were shortlisted for the 2026 Communication Arts: Illustration Annual.
Avery Norman, BFA Photography ’22, participated in a panel on “girlhood as an inner landscape where identity is imagined, tested, and continuously reshaped” for Vogue. She will also be showing work at the upcoming PhotoVogue Festival during Milan Fashion week.
David McFadden, BArch ’79, shares his reflections on two competing schools of thought that shaped postmodernist architecture in the US with Archinect. “As a student, I found this position intellectually compelling. It offered rigor during a period of disciplinary instability. It suggested that architecture could preserve coherence through formal logic even when cultural consensus was fragmented.”
Visiting Instructor of Industrial Design Jacob Turetsky was selected to be the jury captain for the Speculative Design category in Core77’s Design Awards, for which he will be “evaluating work that operates in the space between what is and what could be. His guidance to entrants acknowledges the category’s unique demands while emphasizing a crucial anchor point.”
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Information Jennifer Hubert Swan has a book review published in The New York Times. “In two newly published children’s books — one an English translation of an Italian classic and the other an exploration of the tragic consequences of the Nazi occupation of France — bravery arrives in a pint-size package and is all the better for it,” writes Swan.
From Pratt Institute News
From Pratt Institute News
