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.
Celebrating Creative Legends
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.
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.
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.
Biocircuits Wins 2025 Material Lab Prize
From Pratt Institute News
The winner of the 6th annual prize tackled the growing problem of e-waste.
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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Architecture-Focused High School Opens In Newark: ‘Milestone For Students’
The Newark School of Architecture & Interior Design has officially opened, with Pratt as a key higher education partner helping shape the curriculum to prepare local students for careers in architecture, interior design, and the building trades.
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NJDOC and Pratt Institute unveil groundbreaking fashion design program for incarcerated women
In partnership with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Pratt has launched a pioneering 10-month fashion design and workforce development program at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, offering incarcerated women professional-level training and a Pratt certificate to support reentry and career opportunities.
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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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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.”
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Edel Rodriguez, BFA Painting ’94 and Visionary Awardee 2019, created the most recent cover of The New Yorker entitled “Mayor Mamdani,” depicting incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani smiling on a crowded subway. For more examples of Pratt alumni and faculty who have contributed to the magazine, see the recent story “Pratt and a Century of the New Yorker”.
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Swarali Karulkar, MS Dance/Movement Therapy ’16, is premiering her documentary film, Body Unveiled, at the upcoming New York Documentary Film Festival, with its world premiere to follow at the Awareness Film Festival. Body Unveiled explores how trauma is stored within the body and how the key to reclaiming agency and healing lies within. Karulkar produced the film to raise awareness—especially within the South Asian community—about the powerful role movement and the body can play in healing deep-rooted trauma.
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Fine Arts alumnus Mario A. Robinson was selected as the first-ever Save Ellis Island artist-in-residence. “Mario Robinson is the perfect artist to interpret the south side of Ellis Island. His sensitivity to American history is beautifully told through the stillness found in his paintings,” said Jim Dessicino, museum creative director for Ellis Island.
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Four Pratt faculty and alumni were featured in the 40 Under 40 North America list by the World Architecture Festival (WAF), in collaboration with The Architect’s Newspaper: Laura Salazar-Altobelli, assistant professor of undergraduate architecture; Erik Martínez, BArch ’10; Juan Sala, BArch ’16; and Isaac Michan, MArch ’13.
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Isabelle Brourman, MFA Fine Arts ’19, received a New York Press Club “Continuing Coverage – National Magazine” award for her illustrations for the series “Trump on Trial” in New York Magazine.
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Kay Moon, BFA Fine Arts ’25, received the Sculptors Guild Roosevelt Scholarship. Their work Beings of Light and Fire is on view at the MORA Museum of International Art in Jersey City, NJ, through December.
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.