Pratt alum and seven-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein has embarked on a new creative chapter, shifting from his celebrated theater career to quilting—a later-in-life pivot that reflects his enduring connection to making and creative expression.
Designing Digital Interfaces for Real-World Clients
Graduate student Shreesa Shrestha, MSIXD ’26, is making the most of every opportunity at Pratt as she balances client projects, community-building initiatives, and a prestigious Product Design Fellowship at The Museum of Modern Art.
Architecture Students Make Strong Debut at Design Competition
From Pratt Institute News
The Pratt team earned national recognition and the honorable mention award for a project centered on food, culture, and connection in Kansas City.
Celebrating Creative Legends
From Pratt Institute News
Legends 2025 raised vital funds for student scholarships and honored distinguished creative icons Jeremy Scott and Mavis Wiggins, with awards presented by Heidi Klum and Cindy Allen.
Nurturing Exquisite Relations
From Pratt Institute News
Cocreated with alumni, faculty, and students across the Institute, a recent exhibition presented by Pratt’s School of Art embodied mentorship, collaboration, and support for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Scary-Good Short Films by Pratt Alumni to Stream Now
From Pratt Institute News
A Halloween-inspired watch list for the spookiest time of year.
Capturing Light in Fort Greene Park
From Pratt Institute News
Pratt students took a stroll to paint serene fall scenes.
Archival Fashion by Legendary Designer Mary McFadden Arrives at Pratt
From Pratt Institute News
A portion of the iconic fashion designer’s world-renowned archive has officially relocated to Pratt’s Brooklyn campus. A generous gift from the McFadden family will support ongoing scholarship, preservation, and the promotion of the collection.
The Latest
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Jeremy Scott Accepts Legends Award at Pratt
The WWD article celebrates designer and Pratt alum Jeremy Scott as a 2025 Legends Award honoree, tracing how his Pratt education and perseverance after early rejection shaped his creative journey—from aspiring ceramicist in Missouri to globally recognized fashion visionary whose bold, unconventional designs reflect the transformative power of a creative education.
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New York art students navigate creativity in the age of AI
NBC News Now spotlighted two Graduate Communications Design students and spoke with Chair Gaia Hwang about how Pratt’s designers are reimagining creativity in the age of AI.
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Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89
Obituary for Robert Redford, acclaimed actor, Academy Award–winning director, environmental advocate, founder of the Sundance Institute and Film Festival, who studied painting at Pratt, and passed away at his home in Utah at the age of 89.
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Archinect City Guide: Explore Brooklyn with Quilian Riano, Dean of Pratt School of Architecture
Archinect’s Brooklyn City Guide features Quilian Riano, dean of the School of Architecture, who shares his favorite local spots while highlighting Pratt’s architecture events, sculpture park, and campus spaces as must-visit destinations.
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A Long Sunrise Walk to Start the School Year
The New York Times highlights Pratt’s annual tradition where first-year students join President Frances Bronet and Vice President for Student Affairs Delmy Lendof for a sunrise walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, a bonding ritual that helps them connect with one another and the city.
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Broiled by Heat Waves, Residents of the Concrete Jungle Suffer
Explores how climate change and urban design intensify heat in New York City—especially in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. The article highlights research by Pratt’s Dr. Yuliya Dzyuban, who studies “heat walks” to measure how infrastructure impacts thermal comfort.
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NYC art schools see record-high application numbers as Gen Zers clamber to enroll
The article highlights a surge in applications to NYC art schools, with Pratt seeing record enrollment and waitlists for its fine arts programs as Gen Z pursues creative, hands-on careers in response to an AI-driven world.
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Alumni stepped up to leadership roles at the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York. Stephanie Neel, MSLIS ’15, is now the president, Herbert Durán, MSLIS ’21, is the director of education, and Elizabeth Kobert, MSLIS ’19, is the director of publications. Faculty and staff are leaders as well: Visiting Assistant Professor Cara Dellatte is the director of membership, and DPOE-N Program Manager Kirk Mudle is the director of advocacy.
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Six Pratt grads created designs for the NYCxDesign “Ode to NYC” poster campaign: Sakarit Chankaew, BFA Communications Design ’25; Isabel Chun, MFA Communications Design ’25; Mallory Kurkjian, BFA Communications Design ’25; Yua Maekawa, BFA Communications Design ’25; Catherine Nina, BFA Communications Design ’24; and Aidan Wesighan, BFA Communications Design ’25.
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Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow Alex Strada joined Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Gaby Collins-Fernandez for a conversation on The Brooklyn Rail’s “The New Social Environment” about Strada’s new citywide public artwork, Public Address.
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Adjunct Professor – CCE of Industrial Design Irvin Tepper was featured in a Wall Street Journal article about his collection of fountain pens. “Writing with the German-made pen, Tepper says, is ‘almost like riding a wild horse’ because it’s a larger pen with an extremely smooth nib.”
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Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice Carlos Motta was named the 2025–26 Keith Haring Chair in Art and Activism from Bard College. As the Keith Haring Chair, he will be a fellow at Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and the Bard Human Rights Program, will teach a class across departments, and will deliver a lecture in the spring. Motta will continue to do his work at Pratt simultaneously with this fellowship in the spring semester.
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The Chicago Reader reviewed Cornerstone, a solo exhibition in Chicago’s Hyde Park Art Center by Yasmin Spiro, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’99; MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’04. “Sound and smell aren’t the only senses Spiro engages to focus attention on the question of home. For her, materiality is central; each element of her work is layered with reference, history, and memory, revealing how our ideas of home are bound by our relationship to the land and the things we build upon it.”
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Nat Mesnard, visiting instructor of associate degrees, describes how they developed the role-playing card game Assemblage in an article for Edge Effects. “Beginning with archetypes, Dream Askew invites players to develop the game’s narrative foundation through emergent conversations on character relationships. Assemblage, I decided, would be similar: in conversation, my players would define not just single characters, but entire species—a collection of simultaneous, overlapping ‘we’ voices.”
Prattfolio
Perspective Shifts
Spring 2025
Change Your Gaze
An MFA Communications Design class explores new ways of thinking and making, finding collaborators in the natural world.