Foundation

PrattMWP and Pratt Institute’s first-year core, the foundation year, is a prerequisite to all the professional programs in the Schools of Art and Design. Pratt’s faculty throughout the Institute have worked together to carefully craft a comprehensive year-long course of study that prepares you for future study in the School of Art or the School of Design.

The curriculum was designed with two major outcomes in mind: (1) you will be introduced to concepts, materials, and modes of working common to all art and design practice, and (2) you will become a confident practitioner of the design and creative process. You will leave the first year with the confidence and conviction necessary to continue studies in your chosen field.

The primary objective of the first-year foundation core is to develop and expand your visual thinking through a critical practice of methods and processes of creativity. To accomplish this, you participate in a series of studio experiences that deal with the analysis of problems in perception, conception and imagination. The studio work encompasses both 2- and 3-dimensional forms in their optical, technical, and symbolic natures. In addition, you receive an introduction to 4-dimensional (time-based) arts through the use of computers and other media. At one point, you may deal with specifically designed structural problems, and at another point, you may examine these problems from expressive, social and historical perspectives. Through this process, individual imagination, skill, ambition and preferences are examined.

The foundation core helps you evaluate your previous art experience in light of new ideas and techniques. This grounding in underlying concepts and principles of the visual arts puts professional aims in an historical perspective. Before specialization in the sophomore year,

the core curriculum encourages flexibility, adaptability and the experience of design and art as wide ranging enterprises.

Transfer students will be evaluated for advanced standing based on their portfolio and the similarity of studio courses taken at any previous college.

View the foundation-year courses in the Curriculum Section on page 65.

Space, Form, Process, Class Project

Lindy Callahan

“It’s very rewarding to see how far I’ve come in skill and knowledge that I’ve gained from each of my professors.”

Sojin Kim

Kristina Selinski

Molly Brown