Kadir Nelson, BFA Communications Design ’96, discusses his forthcoming illustrated book Basketball and his love of the game in an interview with Rolling Out. “I begin with an idea, I create a sketch. Sometimes I do studies if it’s a very complex painting, and then I’ll transfer my sketches to a canvas, and I create the canvas, so it’s very traditional. I really enjoy the medium of oil painting because it’s something that the old masters used and it stands the test of time. Working with it is a bit more familiar to me than working with other mediums.”
The Daily Hub
A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
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In Kansas City interviewed Jason Chen, BID ’21, about his career journey. “Studying the history of industrial design gave a great background for the work I do now. It’s about finding the context with the owner and the spirit of the house or apartment. I think a good interior always takes into consideration the time and place the home was built, including what kind of objects might have been living in it.”
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Pratt Institute’s Communications and Marketing Creative Services team earned second place in Archinect’s Fall ’25 Get Lectured competition for their design of the School of Architecture’s Fall 2025 event series poster.
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Fast Company interviewed Chair of Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design (GA/LA/UD) Andrew Holder for an article on the recent Lever Long Enough to Move the World: Sketches in Contemporary Architecture exhibition by the School of Architecture that included more than 60 hand-drawn architectural sketches. “We are in a world that is now completely dominated by digital tools, but something strange is happening: The hand sketch is back,” Holder said.
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Artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, assistant professor of foundation, will lead a walk-through tour of her digital commission by the MTA, “Manhatta Waterways: a Sanctuary,” on Saturday, March 14, at 4 PM at Fulton Center in downtown Manhattan.
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In 2027–28, Pratt will form a new, NYC-centric DIII conference with neighbors at Baruch, Brooklyn College, CCNY, Hunter, John Jay, Lehman, Medgar Evers, and York. Additional expansion is expected.
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Tomokazu Matsuyama, MFA Communications Design ’04, will have a new light installation on display in Times Square beginning April 1. Morning Again features 96 massive LED screens that will “pulse with Matsuyama’s vibrant, cross-cultural aesthetic,” every night in April for three minutes, according to Hypebeast.
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Illya Azaroff, MArch ’97, president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), joined Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED podcast to discuss “disaster mitigation, global action through architecture, and the role of the AIA within the design community.” “As a profession, we should be looking at ourselves in the mirror and recognizing the agency and leadership that we already have and embody that in our work—whether you’re a sole practitioner or a large firm—because [climate-vulnerable] communities need us.”
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Artist Alanna Fields, MFA Photography ’19, is speaking with Kiesha Scarville at an event hosted by Aperture and Printed Matter today, March 4. The artists will “center on the artists’ shared interest in notions of memory that survives across generations.” Fields will also discuss her recent publication Unveiling (Meteoro Editions, 2025).
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The Pratt Center for Community Development shared an update on three of the 2025–2026 Taconic Fellows.
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