Gerald Luss (BID ’49), a Pratt alumus and celebrated midcentury-modern designer, passed away at 98. Best known for his groundbreaking interiors for the Time-Life Building, Luss helped shape postwar office design and left a lasting legacy in the field.
Making Your At-Home Setup Work for You
Recent student projects tackle the everyday challenges of working and studying from home.
Opening the Door to Creative Careers
From Pratt Institute News
Pratt students build a professional foundation with internships and fellowships across the city.
Souvenirs, Chairs, and Group Shows at NYCxDESIGN 2025
From Pratt Institute News
Pratt students, faculty, and alumni shared work and insights during the 2025 NYCxDESIGN festival.
NYC’s Racial Equity Reports: Another Look
From Pratt Institute News
In a recent City Limits op-ed, Associate Professor Eve Baron and Pratt Center Senior Planner Tara Duvivier highlight the underuse of New York’s Racial Equity Reports (RERs) and share strategies for making them more effective in shaping equitable land use decisions.
Workplace Ready: Project SEARCH Interns Graduate
From Pratt Institute News
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.
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.
The Latest
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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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How a Sneaker Designer Spends His Day Transforming Nikes
Sneaker designer and alumnus Andy Martinez, who studied cartooning and film at Pratt, launched his bespoke brand &e after classmates admired his early designs—now worn by celebrities like LeBron James and SZA—combining cowboy boot shafts with Nike Air Force 1 soles in handcrafted, fashion-forward hybrids.
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Derrick Adams Wants His Art to Be Fun
Pratt alumnus Derrick Adams creates vibrant, imaginative artworks that celebrate the joy, normalcy, and everyday experiences of Black life.
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Emerging artist discovers his family’s Mexican roots through his work
Pratt student Angel Ortega explores his Mexican heritage and themes of cultural identity through his artwork and mentorship, inspired by his mother’s immigrant journey and supported by Pratt’s Young Scholars program.
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Pratt’s MFA Exhibition Mirrors These Disjointive Times
Pratt’s 2025 MFA Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Inside/Out, was featured in Hyperallergic for its powerful exploration of space, identity, and the complexities of the current moment.
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Dona Ann McAdams’ Photography; Latest Tech News; Bab L’Bluz Performs Live; MUNA’s Katie Gavin
Photographer Dona Ann McAdams was recently interviewed on WNYC’s All of It with Alison Stewart, discussing her decades-spanning work capturing marginalized communities. The segment coincides with her solo exhibition black | box at Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
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Mark Grattan, BID ’06, spoke with Untapped Journal for “The House I Grew Up In,” the 2025–2026 theme of their symposium, Making Space. “It’s important to sit in [your home], understand how you feel in it, acknowledge how you move around the space, and identify things that will make you feel better in it.”
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We Were the Scenery, directed by Assistant Professor of Film/Video Christopher Radcliff, screened at IFC Center from July 4 to 10 as part of the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour. Radcliff also had a recent film screening at Metrograph, alongside a film screening by Visiting Assistant Professor of Film/Video Suneil Sanzgiri.
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Alessandra Clemente, BFA Interior Design ’22, was profiled in Haute Residence. At Pratt, her thesis “received the prestigious Pratt Institute Social Justice Award in the Leadership Category, highlighting its engagement with real social and spatial issues.”
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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.
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Eshaan Mehta, BArch ’26, curated the Architecture = Art: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection exhibition at The Paul Rudolph Institute. “These drawings transcend function,” Lewin told School of Architecture News. “They are personal, poetic, and often provocative. They show how architecture begins with a bold visual idea.”
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Adjunct Professor – CCE of Fine Arts Jean Shin was selected as an Artist-in-Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) 2025–2026 AIRIE Fellow.
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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.”
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.