The online ceremony is meant to mark the moment of the graduating class’s completion of degree work, and honor and salute their academic achievement. It will consist of live and prerecorded elements presented as a continuous event on Pratt’s website, and will include remarks by Pratt President Frances Bronet and Pratt Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Gitlin as well as Pratt’s Distinguished Teacher for 2021-2022 and the undergraduate and graduate student speakers. It will feature an address by Commencement honoree and speaker, visual artist and activist Dread Scott.
Dread Scott (photo by Sebastian Kim)
Pratt Institute will honor the class of 2021 with an online Commencement ceremony. The ceremony will commemorate the achievements of more than 1,200 graduating students on Saturday, May 22 on Pratt’s website.
The online ceremony is meant to mark the moment of the graduating class’s completion of degree work, and honor and salute their academic achievement. It will consist of live and prerecorded elements presented as a continuous event on Pratt’s website, and will include remarks by Pratt President Frances Bronet and Pratt Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Gitlin as well as Pratt’s Distinguished Teacher for 2021-2022 and the undergraduate and graduate student speakers. It will feature an address by Commencement honoree and speaker, visual artist and activist Dread Scott.
Dread Scott’s honorary degree will be conferred in recognition of his body of work focusing on social progress, racial inequality, and America’s political structures. Challenging and propulsive, Scott’s art offers a vision of a more just and equitable future. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, and in galleries and on street corners. He was recently named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts and is a 2019 Open Society Foundations Soros Equality Fellow. Scott has received grants from United States Artists and Creative Capital Foundation. Artnet.com highlighted his 2019 performance Slave Rebellion Reenactment as one of the most important artworks of the decade.
Graduating students will be acknowledged, along with their degrees, and have the opportunity to engage on social media by posting with the hashtag #PrattGrad21. Highlights will be featured on the website during the ceremony.