The Daily Hub

Jonathan A. Scelsa, associate professor of undergraduate architecture, and Gregory Sheward, visiting assistant professor in the School of Architecture, were part of a team that won the Best Project Award for their project “Centripetal Clay Printing: Six Axis Prints for a Habitat Column” from the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). The award “recognizes the substantial achievement of an accepted project, offering a significant contribution to architectural production through engagement with computational technologies in design and building.”

Miray Celikkol, BArch ’25, discusses her education, career aspirations, and the origins of Femmes of the Future, a student-led platform advocating for women in design, with Madame Architect. “Every initiative, every program we introduce, brings us closer to a world where women are not just part of the conversation in design but are leading it,” she said. 

Isabelle Brourman, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19, is profiled in The New York Times for her ongoing and highly expressive courtroom sketch series. Brourman is currently sketching the New York civil fraud trial of former U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

Cullen Washington Jr., visiting assistant professor of fine arts, was chosen as the inaugural Helen Frankenthaler Foundation residency recipient for the organization’s International Studio & Curatorial Program. The residency, which runs through May 31, explains that “Cullen Washington Jr.’s abstract paintings convey the feeling of the divine in nature through matter and light, which he calls TerraChroma.

Three Pratt faculty members—Francis Bradley, associate professor of social science and cultural studies; Nina Freedman, visiting associate professor of undergraduate architecture; and Roland Mikhail, visiting associate professor of fine arts—received 2024 New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) grants for different creative projects. NYSCA works to “foster and advance the full breadth of New York State’s arts, culture, and creativity for all.”

Sara Zielinski, MFA Sculpture and Integrated Practices ’23, received a 2024 New York State Council on the Arts grant award for her project “ABOLITIONIST BENCHES” with the arts organization Culture Push. Zielinski is creating a series of wooden benches around the sites of the Manhattan Detention Complex and the Brooklyn House of Detention for community members to sit and discuss the “effects of incarceration, jail demolition, and jail construction on their businesses and psyches.”

Hoda Ramy, MFA Digital Arts ’21, animated and directed the music video for the song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” from GRAMMY nominated group säje, featuring Jacob Collier. The video showcases Ramy’s minimalist, vibrant, and symbolic style to depict a character on a personal, inward journey. 

Anthony Cudahy, BFA ’11; Lizzy Lunday, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19; and Vanessa Gully Santiago, visiting instructor, are among the artists selected for NYLON’s 10 Painters to Watch 2023 edition. “For the 2023 Art Issue, NYLON brings you the newest crop of talented and thrilling artists, those who are pushing the boundaries in the ever-evolving medium of painting — and they’re only getting started.”

Rodney Leon, BArch ’92, designed the recently opened Cultural Museum of African Art in Bed-Stuy, which features more than 3,000 ancient artifacts. “Our challenge was really to balance and provide enough space for the artifacts to be exhibited,” Leon said. “No matter what, we were going to do whatever to help bring this public space to fruition.”

Sahar Khraibani, acting assistant chair of undergraduate communications design, received a 2023 Arts Writer Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. The work enabled by the grant will entail “a series of articles on the artistic modes of production employed by queer artists from the Arab world and its diaspora.”