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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Morgan Gruer, BFA Communications Design ’16, is profiled by Tap Into in a piece that explores her artistic background, career trajectory, and short film Fire at Will, which will be featured at the Nantucket Film Festival. “I wanted to explore a more applied form of visual storytelling. I attended Pratt Institute, which gave me the tools to bridge fine art and design thinking in a really dynamic way.”

  • Adjunct Professor – CCE of Fine Arts Jean Shin was presented with the 2025 Michael Richards Award for Visual Art at LMCC’s 2025 Downtown Dinner. “I am so profoundly honored to receive this award bearing Michael Richards’ name—an artist whose absence still echoes with us today,” Shin wrote on Instagram. “I accept it with gratitude and determination, knowing that true honor lies not in receiving but in continuing the essential work that Michael Richards began.”  

  • Salman Toor, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’09, is profiled in an immersive, multimedia feature in The New York Times that explores his studio space, his art practice, and his background and influences. “When he graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 2009, Toor was painting as if he was an apprentice of the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini. He had started making classical portraits of friends that included a strange scribble of paint above their heads. That is when Catherine Redmond, his painting professor at Pratt, knew something was about to change. His brushstrokes were becoming less about the Renaissance and more about him.”

  • Young Jun Kim, BFA Fine Arts (Jewelry) ’24, was featured in The Good Men Project about his jewelry practice. “In a world where jewelry often begins and ends with surface beauty, Young Jun Kim dares to dig deeper, transforming metal into memory, ornament into narrative,” writes Noen Noah. “As both a designer and metalsmith, Young Jun Kim is redefining what it means to adorn the body, crafting pieces that not only captivate the eye but also question the nature of beauty, imperfection, and time itself.

  • Graphis awarded Satchel McLaughlin, AOS Graphic Design ’25, Silver for typography and design in their New Talent 2025 competition. She also received an Honorable Mention for her poster design.

More Pratt Institute News

A group portrait of nine smiling Project SEARCH interns dressed in formal and semi-formal attire, seated together on wooden steps in a brightly lit interior space. The group includes a diverse mix of individuals, with some in suits, button-down shirts, and one wearing a white ruffled dress. They appear proud and celebratory, possibly marking their graduation or completion of the program.

Workplace Ready: Project SEARCH Interns Graduate

New York City high school students received career training through Project SEARCH, a national program focused on workforce-readiness for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Pratt Names Courtney Knapp New Chair of the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment

From Pratt Institute News

An award-winning scholar and professor in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment’s Urban and Community Planning program, Knapp will assume the role on July 1, 2025, succeeding Eve Baron, who is stepping down to join the full-time faculty.
Two smiling individuals dressed in formal attire pose on a red carpet holding Tony Awards. The man on the left wears a blue tuxedo with a colorful bow tie, while the man on the right wears a black suit with decorative details and a white high-collared shirt. The background includes logos for CBS, Paramount+, and the Tony Awards.

Alumni Harvey Fierstein and Paul Tazewell Shine at the Tony Awards

From Pratt Institute News

Esteemed writer and actor Harvey Fierstein was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the theater; Oscar-winning designer Paul Tazewell won for Best Costume Design in a Musical.