The Daily Hub

New York City-based multimedia artist and educator Alex Strada will be Pratt’s 2024/25 Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow. In addition to teaching in the Fine Arts Department, the role involves developing programming and/or workshops connecting the fellow’s practice to internal and external communities.

Sylvia Chen, BID ’23, was honored at German design council’s “one&twenty” competition at Milan Design Week. Her team’s cargo scooter was among 21 winning designs of the competition, organized by the Foundation Council for Design. “One&twenty” supports young talents who are “shaping a more sustainable and inclusive world.”

The first solo show by Kosuke Kawahara, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’20, is reviewed in Two Coats of Paint by Michael Brennan, adjunct professor-CCE of fine arts. The inaugural exhibition at RAINRAIN gallery’s new Chinatown location, Kawahara’s Exotic Star is “the most adventurous painting exhibition I have seen in some time,” writes Brennan.

Max Palmer, BFA Photography ’10, gives a tour of his studio space and discusses his art practice, commitment to using only salvaged materials, and life in Brooklyn in a video profile for Pocket Skate Mag. “I went to school for photography and did a couple of sculpture classes then started working for this artist Sarah VanDerBeek, helping her make her sculptures,” he said. “Eventually I was kind of like, ‘oh I want to do my own mold-making stuff.’”

Timothy Simonds, adjunct associate professor of humanities and media studies, is featured in The New York Times about Manhattan-based station Montez Press Radio. Simonds hosts a show called “Miss Othmar’s Meeting with Teachers,” which “collects the voices of different teachers and facilitators from a variety of fields and their approaches to leading the listener through exercises over radio.”

Creative Enterprise Leadership Chair Mary McBride and Assistant Chair and Professor Xue Bai presented their book and the department’s work at dmi:Design Management Conference in London. As they write in the book, “Human enterprise and human work has created the conditions that threaten to destabilize our climate and communities. It is time to re-imagine our enterprise and economic activity as life serving. Anything else is a waste of time, money, and human potential.”

Elisa Edgar, BFA Writing ’27, an intern at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), wrote an op-ed for Brooklyn Reader in favor of New York passing the Climate Change Superfund Act. “Quality of life for generations to come is at stake. We must demand guilty companies pay those billions instead; billions that will reshape neighborhoods and save lives,” she writes. “Not only is this doable, it is inches from fruition.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Niama Safia Sandy earned the New Leadership Award from ArtTable. This award “recognizes an emerging professional who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and made considerable contributions to the visual art field in the earlier stages of their careers.”

Evan Wu, BID ’26, won the Grand Prize at the IESNYC Student Lighting Competition for his project Taiwan Boulevard. Second place in the competition went to Thalia Lee, MID ’26, for her project Castles in the Cloud. According to the IESNYC, “over 165 students from design colleges and universities across New York City participated, displaying their innovative lighting projects based on the theme “Proximal Light” at the LEDucation Trade Show & Conference on March 19th.”

Eric Wrenn, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’07, was profiled in The New York Times. The minimalist designer is known for his iconic work with clients spanning the fashion, art, design, and music industries. “I try to give someone a design that says something about their brand, but that also doesn’t say too much,” he told the Times. “The idea is you say something without saying anything.”