In his Commencement address, journalist and editor of The New Yorker David Remnick said that society “cries out for citizens of imagination and creativity” in order to thrive, and urged the graduating class to not “give up or compromise on what you know and what you love.”
The May 19 Commencement honored the class of 2026 with a ceremony in the iconic setting of Radio City Music Hall. The joyful gathering celebrated the achievements of approximately 1,400 graduating students, who now proudly join the distinguished ranks of Pratt’s global alumni community.
The 137th Commencement was also live-streamed for those attending remotely. Kelly-Ann Tan, BArch ’26, and Megan Chew, BArch ’26, sang and performed a beautiful rendition of Pratt’s alma mater on the guitar and flute, setting the stage before Pratt President Frances Bronet’s opening remarks.
President Bronet greeted the audience and applauded the accomplishments of the graduating class. “You are our visionaries, you are our implementers,” she said. “In your time here, you have faced many challenges, asking hard questions and being asked hard questions, thriving on social connection with each other and the world. You created projects that provided mutual aid to our most vulnerable neighbors. Your work demonstrates extraordinary creativity, compassion, and the highest level of ambition, rigor, agility, and professionalism.”
She closed her remarks by expressing gratitude for the faculty as well as the families, friends, caregivers, and loved ones who have supported graduates on their academic journeys.
Board of Trustees Chair Gary Hattem spoke about the positive impact that Pratt graduates have had in New York and around the world and called on the graduating students to follow the “North Star” of helping others.
Pratt then bestowed honorary degrees upon three leaders in their fields whose work embodies the innovation and creativity fostered by the Institute, including Remnick (Doctor of Letters), Director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation and renowned art historian Dr. Mariët Westermann (Doctor of Humane Letters), and esteemed designer and printmaker Ted Shaine, BFA Advertising Design ’68 (Doctor of Fine Arts).
In his Commencement address, Remnick repeatedly stressed the vital importance of creatives to society, while acknowledging challenges such as artificial intelligence and economic factors that can stand in their way. He traced the creative momentum of his own life, from feeling awakened as a kid by Bob Dylan’s music to studying comparative literature in college, traveling to Moscow for reporting assignments, and eventually joining The New Yorker.
“[Dylan] led to all kinds of landscapes and emotions, and one voice led to learning about another and another, and eventually, eventually, all of those influences, listening to and reading and seeing all those artists, helped formulate my own self as a writer and as an editor of a peculiar, and I hope sometimes funny, American magazine,” he said. “I imagine in some way that process is happening to you.”
He urged the students to “let those voices, those influences, help you form your inner life and your creative self. It is absolutely vital to the creation of originality and your creativity.”
Remnick shared the hope that the new graduates will find a way to “ferociously, fiercely” pursue a creative life.
“We are not only rooting for you, we are selfishly waiting for you to enrich our own lives. One day soon we’ll read you, we’ll gaze at the paintings and the canvases and the films that you’ve created,” he said. “We’ll live in the homes that you’ve built; maybe we’ll wear the clothes that you design and that you imagine into being, or see the songs that you’ve written and played, and we will thank you and be able to say that we knew you when, right here, right now.”
In accepting his honorary degree, alumnus Shaine spoke about the enduring resonance of his Pratt education. “My four years at Pratt are still on my mind,” he said. “It’s still part of my DNA, and I’m sure it will be part of yours as you go forward to your careers.”
Dr. Westermann spoke about the connections between Pratt and the Guggenheim Museum. “The Guggenheim and Pratt share in a mission, a great mission to advance art practice and connect people to creative life around the world,” she said. “You all truly earned the degree by bringing your art into the world. Now you will make it better for all of us.”
Speakers also included Karen Dunn, adjunct associate professor of graduate communications design, who earned the Distinguished Teacher Award (2026–27) and was honored with a medal designed by Jo Barnett, MID ’26.
Anish Lahiri, BFA Communications Design ’26, and Aliman Temirbek, MS Urban Placemaking and Management ’26, were the student speakers. Jazz arrangements of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” and Jeremiah Clarke’s “Prince of Denmark’s March”—developed specially for Pratt’s Commencement by Juilliard graduate Evan Harris—were performed live by a jazz ensemble during the processional and recessional.
At the ceremony’s end, the class of 2026 departed the historic venue into a sunny and warm Manhattan afternoon surrounded by friends and family, ready to begin their lives as Pratt alumni.
More photographs from Commencement are below. Follow @PrattInstitute on Instagram and the hashtag #PrattGrad26 to see more from this milestone event.
