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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Pratt Institute was the lead in a WNYC radio spotlight and Gothamist feature article on the high demand for an arts education, with record-breaking enrollment at New York City schools, a surprising trend given recent headlines. “Especially when the world is so unstable and insecure, I think that art is a place of reflection, resistance and imagination,” Pratt Institute Fine Arts Chair Jane South said in the piece. Professor of Fine Arts Adrienne Elise Tarver added that students are “very interested in the material,” and Manar Balh, BFA ’26, was quoted saying, “A lot of my peers understand that nothing is guaranteed really, no matter what you study, so you should just study the thing that matters the most to you.” Coverage also appeared in The New York Times and The Art Newspaper

  • Hyperallergic covered the ongoing Process In Practice exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, which runs through Sept. 6 and features work by Pratt Communications Design alumni from both the graduate and undergraduate programs. “From branding and type design to social impact work and fine art, the alumni featured in Process in Practice span the breadth of design’s potential. Their practices cross disciplines and geographies, covering public art in New York, children’s book storytelling in Mexico, type innovation in Bangkok, sustainability in publishing and user experience, and beyond.”

  • Pratt Institute’s Communications and Marketing Creative Services team earned third place in Archinect’s Spring ’25 Get Lectured competition for their design of the School of Architecture’s spring 2025 event series poster.

  • Tomokazu Matsuyama, MFA Communications Design ’04, is profiled by Puck writer Marion Maneker, who visits Matsuyama’s studio in Greenpoint. “Matsu presented me with an articulate rationale for his syncretic work: Japanese anime-inspired figures inhabiting a world of riotous patterned wallpaper and clothing was an expression of his own sense of being a minority within a very different majority culture. His work is about representation, but within it, he imagines a sophisticated multicultural world where there are no set hierarchies.”

  • Pin-Up interviews Mark Grattan, BID ’06, in a wide-ranging conversation that explores his love of woodworking, his upcoming Layered collection for HBF Textiles, and his resistance to trends. “I’m not on trend. I’ve always stayed clear of a trend. Stacking and repetition give me comfort. In my eyes, it’s a beautiful thing to repeat a shape. The new collection has a lot of repeating shapes, like marquetry, which I’m working on a lot at the moment.”

More Pratt Institute News

A group of people gathers for a ceremonial signing event in a modern indoor space. In the foreground, a woman with short white hair, dressed in a dark outfit, is signing a large poster on a table. Surrounding her are four men in suits and a woman in a blue dress, observing the signing. Some attendees in the background are seated, with a few wearing blue hard hats.

Building ‘Cradle-Through-Career’ Pathways in Newark

A new public high school in Newark, New Jersey, is opening pathways to careers in the building industry with academic guidance from Pratt faculty.
Two women are discussing a map or document while seated at a table. One woman is pointing to the document, while the other woman is smiling and looking at it. Both are wearing light-colored shirts, and there are additional people and computer screens visible in the background. The setting appears to be an office or training environment.

Fashioning New Pathways for Incarcerated Women

From Pratt Institute News

The innovative program launched by Pratt Institute and the New Jersey Department of Corrections expands access to creative disciplines and workforce development.
A smiling graduate in a black cap and gown, wearing a white hard hat, holds up two large cutouts of faces. One face is of a child with curly hair wearing a hat, and the other is of a man in glasses with styled hair. The graduate is adorned with a colorful stole featuring various patterns and pendant-like decorations. The background shows a city street with people and tall buildings.

Building More Than Just Structures

From Pratt Institute News

Elijah Rayford, BPS Construction Management ’25, turned his passion for problem-solving into a full-time role in New York’s construction industry.