Adjunct Associate Professor Linda Celentano (B.F.A. Industrial Design ’80) was presented with the Rowena Reed Kostellow (RRK) Award for her support and enhancement of the industrial design profession at a ceremony on April 26 at the Humanscale showroom in Manhattan. This event benefits the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund, named after one of the founders of Pratt’s Industrial Design Department, which was established in 1988 to support scholarships and communicate the philosophy of its namesake, one of the founders of Pratt’s Industrial Design Department, through programs and published work. Speakers at the event included Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte, Industrial Design Chair Constantin Boym, Visiting Professor of Industrial Design Jeffrey Kapek, and Fund Chair Tucker Viemeister (B.I.D. ’74).
Celentano, a former student of Kostellow, is a celebrated industrial designer whose work has won awards from IDEA, ID magazine’s Annual Design Review, and Athenaeum Good Design awards. She was one of the first employees of Smart Design, and is now an independent designer creating medical hardware and collections for clients such as Knoll, Estee Lauder, Donna Karan, Nambe, Rosenthal, Stryker Corporation, and Ace Orthopedics. While at Pratt, Celentano also studied under Dr. William Fogler, Gerry Gulotta, and Ralph Applebaum, and has been teaching Fogler’s 3-D class for more than 20 years. She has been recognized in Bloomingdale’s 100 Years of Design Excellence and featured in show at Gallery Gallery 91, Fellisimo, Moss, and the Cooper Hewitt National Museum’s Feeding Desire exhibition.
The award presented to Celentano was a 3-D model created by junior industrial design student Madeleine Knox. Event attendees included alumni Ruth Lande Shuman and RitaSue Siegel, and Industrial Design faculty and students.