Prattfolio Spring 2024

Pratt folio Spring 2024 Mentor ship

Magazine of Pratt Institute

The Connections That Shape Us

Pratt alumni share their stories of mentors and mentoring, and the advice that’s helped them through.

From his 3 World Trade Center studio, artist Taezoo Park, Pratt alumnus and visiting instructor of digital arts, creates art for the future using abandoned technology.

4 Perspective

John Flansburgh, BFA Fine Arts ’84—one half of the venerable alt-rock duo They Might Be Giants—is still unlocking the mysteries of creativity.

8 Study

In one industrial design prototyping course, Pratt students collaborate with Kikkerland and Barnes & Noble to reimagine book accessories.

“Designing Is All About Relationships”: The Rowena Reed Kostellow Archive chronicles a half-century of shaping industrial design.

Prattfolio, the magazine of Pratt Institute, is published by Pratt Communications and Marketing.

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Graphic Designer

Yeji Kim

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Print and Digital

Production Manager

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Copy Editor

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Carson Stachura, MSLIS ’25

Project Manager

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Photo by Michael Tessier

The Paths We Create Together

Mentorship, I will admit, was not something I sought out when I started my journey as a university student or as an architect or educator. It wasn’t that the opportunity didn’t present itself; the potential for that kind of relationship wasn’t yet evident to me. I’ve reflected on this, and there are things I would advise my younger self—especially as someone who today has embraced mentoring as a fundamental facet of my work.

Reflection has shown me, though, that I did have many “accidental mentors.” Meaning, they didn’t know that they were my mentors, but I was watching and learning from them. I observed the way they described their work, the way they engaged with colleagues and their communities, the way they taught. There were people who helped me realize what I didn’t want to do, and others who modeled ways of working that felt true to me: “If I do that, then.” Ultimately, I’ve come to understand, there are so many sources you can draw from to create your path.

As I write this letter, we are preparing to send off our newest class of Pratt alumni, at the climax of a semester energized by Pratt Shows, our culminating showcase of work by graduating students; our annual Research Open House; and other spring programs showcasing the remarkable endeavors of our students and academic community.

We also celebrated the return of the Alumni Achievement Awards as an in-person event, honoring three exceptional Pratt talents—Marilyn Nance, BFA Communications Design ’76; Nasreen Alkhateeb, BFA Fine Arts ’07; and Devin B. Johnson, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19—at a joyful celebration with fellow Pratt alumni at Manhattan’s Museum of Arts and Design.

Reflecting on the tremendous work of our alumni across generations, I think about the rich network our students are a part of from the day they step into their first class or studio. Along with our phenomenal faculty and their student colleagues across disciplines, they connect with a world of fellow makers, thinkers, and vanguards who have built their foundations at Pratt.

In this issue’s special section on mentorship, you’ll hear from just some of those creative leaders who not only established their practices at Pratt but have gone on to help others find their footing, with perspective and advice from the field.

My advice, to that younger self, to our new graduates, to our alumni taking bold, sometimes dizzying next steps on their professional journeys, at any stage:

■ Put yourself in the company of people whose work you admire. They could be the people who oversee your work, or your peers and colleagues. It doesn’t have to be age based, or based on a level of experience. It’s a way of thinking.

■ Find someone you really respect and don’t be afraid to ask them questions. Take them out for lunch, for coffee—chances are, they will be flattered. Ask them what you should read, what you should look at, what you should study, and go back to them with your reflections on what they recommended. This will help push past the hard part, the “I don’t even know what questions to ask” part. Create that guidance structure for yourself.

■ Find someone who has experiences foreign to your own. Listen carefully, watch vigilantly, understand how the unfamiliar will reveal aspects of your own practice that may not have been evident without seeing the other.

■ Build those relationships and let them unfold. They may go away, or ebb and flow. Let the people you connect with get to know who you are, so together you can consider the opportunities and endeavors that might serve you, and what might not, from a place of authenticity.

■ Look beyond your discipline for new frameworks. There weren’t always models whose background and approach resonated with mine. So I had to ask, what are those opportunities to learn from a cross-pollination of cohorts?

■ Listen to the questions people ask you, when they look to you for advice. It can help you think through your own endeavors, and see your own mentor potential.

It’s not just about how to build a career. It’s about how to build a life. The methods and materials may shift and change, but the relationships you forge can be revelatory. Know that you have connections here at Pratt, and keep in touch.

—President Frances Bronet

Practice

From the 3 WTC studio of Taezoo Park, MFA Digital Arts ’12, Visiting Instructor of Digital Arts

Lower Manhattan, New York

Long before there were stores like Best Buy and RadioShack, if New Yorkers wanted to buy electronics, they would go to Radio Row, a 13-block stretch along the Lower West Side. That shuttered in the 1960s; today, overlooking that bygone site, on the 69th floor of 3 World Trade Center (3 WTC), there is a studio filled with old transistors and tubes from the analog era, radically transformed into colorful and sprawling artworks through modern digital technology.

These machines were reimagined by the video artist Taezoo Park, visiting instructor of digital arts at Pratt Institute, who earned his MFA in the program in 2012. Park is a Korean-born creative working in the tradition of trailblazing artist Nam June Paik, who created globally acclaimed video art and television sculptures in the late 20th century. As he has built his career, Park has apprenticed with one of Nam June Paik’s colleagues, engineer C.T. Lui, to

study and archive the artist’s work, a position that continues to deeply inform his practice.

But Park has a style all his own, constantly drawing historical connections from his physical environment into his interactive digital works.

When he arrived in New York City in 2008 to attend Pratt, it was a year before the broadcast transmission system went digital, and analog televisions were being thrown away. Park, who was deeply involved in the city’s interactive art

community, saw this as an artistic opportunity. “People got to know me as the guy collecting these machines from the street,” he says.

As a student, he began work on Digital Being, a sculpture he conceived as an unknown creature born from abandoned analog and digital technology.

(A piece from this work is above.)

In 2016, Park was invited to install this piece in the World Trade Center, and he set up his studio in 3 WTC in 2023.

Last semester, Park returned to Pratt’s Digital Arts Department to teach, conducting an electronic art course called Physical Computing.

As an instructor, Park aims to help students find creative applications for whatever environment they’re working in.

Take, for example, his analog television sculpture Building-1

This kaleidoscopic stack of glowing televisions is currently installed in 7 World Trade Center, where it bears a striking resemblance to the

headquarters of Goldman Sachs right out the window behind it.

“I always try to adjust myself to the situation,” says Park. “Right now, the World Trade Center is the environment I am surrounded by, and I need to find solutions for how to use the space wisely. I cannot teach with a certain manual, but I can teach how to look for solutions.”

nikolas slackman

Read more at pratt.edu/prattfolio /taezoo-park

Perspective

John Flansburgh, BFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’84

One half of the venerable alt-rock duo They Might Be Giants is still unlocking the mysteries of creativity.

John Flansburgh and his long time collaborator John Linnell never put a limit on their creative vision. As the songwriters behind the rock band They Might Be Giants, the duo has created a unique strain of eclectic pop music that, since 1982, has earned them two Grammys and a Tony nomination. The band has galvanized listeners with their unconventional sensibility, nesting their songs in colorful live performances, offbeat album designs, and carefully considered music videos that, in Flansburgh’s words, have functioned as “a frame around the whole project.” With the release of BOOK in 2021, the band combined their wide-ranging interests, bringing lyrics from their recent records into a photo-filled, playfully designed art book and an original musical album.

Much of They Might Be Giants’ multifaceted creative approach can be traced back to Flansburgh’s time as a printmaking major at Pratt Institute in the early ’80s (he graduated with honors in 1984). Flansburgh produced the band’s earliest flyers in Pratt’s printmaking facilities, and his fine arts education not only gave him tools to shape the identity of his band but also informed his practice as a musician. For many of They Might Be Giants’ early innovations in music making and distribution— from their performative live shows to their playful Dial-a-Song service, which listeners could call for a new song from the band each day, and which was run out of the apartment Flansburgh lived in while attending Pratt—Flansburgh’s explorations as a student artist served as a key influence.

Following the release of BOOK, Prattfolio spoke to Flansburgh about finding a dedicated cult audience and how the wisdom gained at Pratt has stayed with him throughout his multifaceted artistic career. (This interview has been edited and condensed.)

During your time at Pratt, you balanced your studies with an organic music-making practice with your They Might Be Giants bandmate and then-roommate, John Linnell. How did your student experience influence you as an artist today?

John Flansburgh: I learned an incredible amount from the printmaking program at Pratt, and Foundation year was important to me as a musician because it taught me how to

This page :

). John Flansburgh ( right ) with John Linnell, photo by Sam Graff

be rigorous with materials. It taught me that if you try to do 10 things in a day, one of them might be interesting, and sometimes that’s better than working on one thing that’s not interesting. That helped me unlock a lot of the mysteries of how to be a creative, productive person.

Also, the first week I was at Pratt I started drinking coffee for the first time, which was a total life changer for me. All of a sudden I had a lot of ideas and I talked really fast. I became a different person, it transformed my life and personality. I recommend it to everyone.

Did you find your academic pursuits and your work on They Might Be Giants informed one another?

JF: I ended up concentrating in printmaking and making a lot of monotypes. Even though you have all day to do it—you can fix things and change things—that way of having at it in a single session was a very transferable skill for writing a song. There are things that I’ve learned about songwriting that help, like the importance of starting a song and trying to finish it the same day. I feel like working at Pratt taught me that if you crack something open and it’s working, it’s nice to get as much out of yourself as you possibly can in that first blast.

You’ve talked about having to overcome the perception of being labeled “quirky” or “comedy rock” early in your career. Did your education prepare you to match the playfulness of the band’s roots with the rigor of an artistic life, and if so, how?

JF: While I was at Pratt, everyone was preoccupied with issues of authen-

ticity. At the same time, the East Village art scene was blowing up, and that was maniacally un-obsessed with authenticity. It seemed more obsessed with veneer, surface, and 24-hour party people.

When we first started, we were playing in clubs, so everything was theatrical, and everything was in the moment. The immediacy of the humor and the songs actually helped us connect and pull the audience into our shows. When we started making records on the Dial-a-Song [telephone service in 1982], it wasn’t that different from our early live shows. We knew people were just hearing the song one time; they weren’t necessarily calling back again and again. There were a lot of things early on that supported a sensationalistic way of working.

But when we started making recordings, we were smart enough to know that we wanted to do something that would hold up a little bit better, and we made some big adjustments in how we arranged the songs to not have them be too cloying.

It’s hard to explain, because almost all good dramas have tons of humor in them, but if you’re writing a song that has some humorous element and it’s too over the top, that ends up being corrosive. It stops listeners from being able to hear the song again and again because it just wears them out. There’s a lightness to most great music, but things that have any kind of comical element are rarer. : Interior spread of They Might Be Giants’

You’ve said that telling your parents you’re becoming a full-time rock musician can feel akin to telling them you’ve joined the circus . . .

JF: It’s not a great day with the parents when you tell them that you’ve decided to ruin your life! To

mention to her friends, and they would be like, “Oh, that’s good! He’s an actual professional,” because nothing we were doing showed up in her world, except maybe when we were on NPR shows.

What as an artist helped you to break out of those preconceived

not just in a “hit song” way. They’re as curious about our left-field work as they are about songs that sound like radio singles. And that’s not always the case.

There’s this thing that I’ve seen happen to all sorts of other bands that never happened to us, where they burned very brightly and were much more commercially successful the moment that they broke as a band. And then in just as surprising a way, the culture said, “We don’t want to think about your band anymore.” If that had happened to us, I don’t think we would have been able to go on, and I’m so grateful it never did.

John and I also have been pretty dogged about just keeping on going. A lot of people burn themselves out and get tired of doing the same kinds of things over and over again. There’ve been some ups and downs, but by and large, we’ve never had to start again. We’ve just been going.

You called the band “our project,” and have said that you see They Might Be Giants as an extended art project. How have you sustained this sort of fluid creative vision for over 40 years? How does BOOK build on that vision?

JF: To me, if you’re in a rock band, the way you package your work is a big part of what you’re presenting. The album cover isn’t just an advertisement for the album. At its best, it’s like a frame around the whole project. Learning how to collaborate with other people on this project, for me, has been rewarding because it’s allowed the scope of the band as a

Opposite : Cover ( top ) and interior of They Might Be Giants’ BOOK book, with photographs by Brian Karlsson. This page : John Flansburgh ( right ) with John Linnell, photo by Shervin Lainez

packaged thing to kind of blossom. John [Linnell] and I have extended our collaboration to working with a backing band, and we also work with graphic designers and photographers and video makers and all sorts of people. We work with Paul Sahre, who is the graphic designer who worked on BOOK and who we’ve done a lot of projects with over the last 10 years. It’s really interesting, finding a way to describe what we’re doing musically and having it be turned into a visual thing. It’s nice to be able to work with other people who take the work to a different level. It’s fun seeing people make cartoons out of your songs too!

How did you connect with Brian Karlsson, who’s also a Pratt alumnus?

JF: I started working with Brian completely long distance, on cell phone calls and emails [during the pandemic]. Paul Sahre knows somebody in the photography world at Pratt who had a bunch of connections with up-and-coming photographers there, and Brian Karlsson’s work stood out,

in part because it was street photography. There’s something kind of egoless about street photography that’s fascinating to me—there are so many different ways street photography lands in the viewer’s mind. If you think about Diane Arbus or Robert Frank, or even Margaret Bourke-White, you can connect with the photographer’s way of seeing the world, but everything also has this one element of remove.

Somehow, that spoke to me, and it connected with the kind of writing that John and I are doing. So it was a very easy decision to make all the photographs in BOOK Karlsson’s work.

I still have yet to meet Brian Karlsson! It’s really weird. I owe him at least one meal in an overpriced restaurant.

What’s one thing you would recommend everyone do on or around Pratt’s campus, whether or not that recommendation still exists?

JF: I’ve always found the structure of the library fascinating. Going inside the library, with the way the cases work through the stories of the floors

is kind of remarkable. It’s from that era of architecture when a lot of steel, iron, and glass were being incorporated. That kind of architecture—like the Eiffel Tower, Grand Central—I love, and the library at Pratt is a really good example for me.

Is there any advice you would give young people coming up in art or music making today?

JF: I had a professor who taught color at Pratt who said, “Being an artist is just foisting your obsessions on the world.” I think he was being flip, but I have to say, I think there’s a large element of truth to that because it has to be your goal in a way. If that’s not good enough, if you don’t feel like you’re making a strong enough impression, I don’t know if you’ll ever be satisfied working in a creative field. You have to feel like you’re getting your ideas acknowledged.

I’m reluctant to give advice to people because what people want out of it is so different. I would just anticipate the worst, and get all the pleasure out of it that you possibly can.

nikolas slackman

Study

Elevating the Book Lover’s Experience

Industrial Design Prototypes I: Kikkerland Design Challenge

Isabela Nery, BID ’24, an industrial design student at Pratt, was on her way home from class one day last fall when it began pouring rain. “New York was underwater; it was raining a lot,” she said. Nery was carrying her books and got home to discover the one she was reading had gotten soaked.

Nery has a close relationship with her books, and was introspective about the water damage. “I got really sad,’’ she said. “It made me think that books live, breathe, and take care of us, so it’s only fair that we take care of them.”

This sparked a question for Nery that resonated with work she was undertaking in an industrial design course at Pratt—how do we care for our books?

The class, Prototypes I: Kikkerland Design Challenge, taught by Professor of Industrial Design Constantin Boym, had undergraduate and graduate industrial design students conceive products related to books and reading in a course sponsored by Kikkerland, a New York-based industry leader in product design, and Barnes & Noble, the largest bookseller in the US.

For a semester, students researched, explored design concepts, and prototyped items for book lovers inspired by Kikkerland’s brand— which Boym describes as “characterized by a certain humorous attitude, by novelty and fun.” They approached the brief “to create their own narratives through designing objects . . . while acknowledging

product typologies and needs of a large book retailer” with Boym’s guidance and critical insights from industry experts. As Kikkerland notes on their blog, students were supported through the design process, “from conducting market research, ideation and development to refinement and prototyping.”

Students began with on-the-ground research during a visit to Barnes & Noble’s Upper West Side location, which opened up a wealth of design opportunities.

“For me, as well as for the students, coming into a megastore like Barnes & Noble felt like entering a temple, a repository of human knowledge, thoughts, and feelings,” says Boym. “Books help to maintain a link between human history and the future.

Prototype images this page and opposite courtesy of the designers. Presentation photo courtesy of Kikkerland

A book is an ancient object that somehow encompasses the future and will continue to do so.”

By November, students came to class with prototypes and had them critiqued by representatives from the two companies. Working closely with professionals from Barnes & Noble and Kikkerland, the students strengthened their ability to present to clients in “short, yet persuasive pitches of their product,” says Boym. “There was a huge learning curve in those skills.”

Over the course of the semester, many of the student designers used the experts’ feedback to pivot from where they started, as they focused on realizing their product designs.

Aarushi Talesara, BID ’24, was inspired by Barnes & Noble’s catalog, and found that the most popular section of the store was the cookbook section. She came up with a product that could serve cookbook enthusiasts in the kitchen.

At the start, Talesara says she was more focused on form than function. She wanted to create a prototype that mirrored Kikkerland’s buoyant aesthetic, but her first attempts didn’t work the way she had intended. Reflecting on the client feedback she had received as well as her personal

Opposite: Hourglass Reading Lamp designed by Iris Guo ’24. Above: Cookbook Ends designed by Aarushi Talesara ’24. Below, clockwise from left: Isabela Nery ’24 presents her book-holder prototype; prototypes by Nery, Lin Chen ’24, and Doreen Riso ’24

relationship with books, she took her work in a new direction.

“When I started to think deeper about my own experiences with reading, my design ideas improved,” she says. “The iterative process of developing prototypes and receiving critique each week was necessary to bring my ideas to fruition. It was also great to receive feedback from Kikkerland designers who have years of experience and an abundance of knowledge on manufacturing feasibility.”

Talesara created Cookbook Ends, a set of two kitchen countertop holders— one that serves as a utensil stand, and the other as a compartment for storing recipes. The two parts work together as bookends for cookbooks.

By prototyping, students learned how to pursue a balance between aesthetics, structure, and utility.

“They had to look at every detail,” says Boym, from material treatment to connections, to finishes and color.

“At the beginning, a lot of their book holders did not hold books very well! They had to figure out the problem and find a solution.”

After refining their designs and holding a final review with the representatives from Kikkerland in the classroom at Pratt, students showcased their work at Barnes & Noble Union Square in a juried event. In their presentations, they shared their inspiration and creative process.

The designers also had a chance to discuss their projects, arranged among the store’s books, with event attendees.

Nery, whose book got wet in the rain, displayed her solution—Book Rain Coat. Drawing from the idea of caring for her books as she felt they cared for her, she had designed a waterproof, protective case for books that included an adjustable strap.

Nery also presented another project, Book Voyager—a sleeve with a criss-cross stand that holds books open—which Nery pitched as turning “any space into a reading haven.” Nery received the Academic Choice Winner award for the work, which Kikkerland said “exceeded all the parameters with its elegance and simplicity.”

Among other projects that received recognition were Annotation Garden by Doreen Riso, BID ’24, a set of flower-shaped stickers to mark pages, and Dog Pen Holder by Lin Chen, BID ’24, a bookmark topped with a dog-shaped pencil clip. Iris Guo, MID ’24, was recognized with the People’s Choice award for her Hourglass Reading Lamp, a light designed to emit a calming amber glow.

By the end of the course, students gained hands-on product-design experience, from conception to iteration, modeling to pitching, as well as unique professional perspectives on process, presentation, and design’s applications in the world.

“My biggest takeaway from this course is that good design does not need to be complicated,” says Talesara. “Gaining hands-on and real-world experience with companies like Kikkerland and Barnes & Noble reminded me that good design is simply about meeting consumers’ needs while bringing joy to their lives.”

nikolas slackman

“You are net weaving.“ This is how Analia Segal, adjunct professor (CCE) of fine arts, describes building relationships as a student and beyond, in a mentor-mentee conversation with alumna Abbey Miller, BFA Fine Arts ’20, for this issue of Prattfolio. “You’re creating rafts for yourself throughout your life, and they move, they don’t stay at Pratt.”

To create this special section, Prattfolio connected with alumni across disciplines to highlight their experiences with mentorship—as students, early-career professionals, and mentors themselves. We also asked the alumni community, through calls in print and email and on social media, who their Pratt mentor was (or is) and how that person helped them in their work and practice. Read on for their stories and perspectives on finding, growing with, and being a mentor, and maybe a nugget of encouragement that you needed today.

The Connections That Shape Us

Pratt alumni on mentors and mentoring, and the advice that’s helped them through

With contributions by Jean Hartig, Diana McClure, Nikolas Slackman, and Andy P. Smith, BFA Writing ’04 Q&As have been edited and condensed.

In Sustainable Design, Mentorship Is a Two-Way Street

Education isn’t just sitting in a classroom and reading or taking in knowledge and completing your assignments,” says Ian Montgomery, principal of the San Francisco-based design firm Guacamole Airplane. “It’s about relationships with people who are further along the path than you are, and them seeing themselves in you, and helping you grow.”

Originally from Los Angeles, Montgomery earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford University and then moved to New York City to earn his master’s in packaging design at Pratt Institute. “I was very attracted to Pratt because they had great facilities,” he says. “Pratt kind of gives you the keys to the kingdom, and if you’re motivated, if you’re a self-starter, you can do whatever you want, and that suited me quite well.”

Montgomery’s graduate thesis focused on sustainability and recycled materials, which saw him working toward build ing his own recycling machines based on open source schematics he had discovered. In the process, he found support and encouragement among his professors, including Eric O’Toole, assistant dean of the School of Design and associate professor, who Montgomery says was willing to consider an untested idea “and give me space to try and prove myself, maybe fail.”

After earning his MS from Pratt in 2018, Montgomery founded Guacamole Airplane, with a focus on sustainable packaging, informed by material innovation, climate science, and “the unique opportunities of modern industry to work towards decarbonization.” Over the years, clients have included Nike, Whole Foods, Dell, Allbirds, and more. Montgomery now sits in the mentor’s seat himself. Alongside his design work, he teaches brand and packaging design at the University of San Francisco. His advice to his students? “It’s such a magical thing to be a student,” he says. “Think of yourself 5 or 10 years down the line and think about who you’re setting your stones with and what types of people or organizations, or what types of values, you want to work with, and create work that appeals to those people. Find a little nugget of a self-directed idea and pursue it.”

To further support and champion student designers, Guacamole Airplane launched a designer-in-residency program two summers ago, to “create an opportunity for designers to do work that would never be supported in a traditional, commercial sense.” (More information on the program is on the Guacamole Airplane website, guaca moleairplane.com, which also features the Sustainable Packaging Supplier Guide, built and expanded from Montgomery’s graduate thesis.)

And when a packaging design student with no welding experience approached the metal fabrication expert Jenny Lee, adjunct professor (CCE) of fine arts, about trying to build recycling machines, Montgomery says she didn’t hesitate to help him: “I’ll take you through it,” she said.

The final product, a series of experimental plastic-recycling machines, built in studio space at Pratt with support from Guerilla Science—an organization helmed by Mark Rosin, associate professor of math and science—have since been exhibited at galleries and festivals across the country. “And I still have the machines in my studio today,” Montgomery says.

The first designer to join the biannual program was then Pratt student Mary Lempres, BFA Fine Arts ’18; MID ’23, whose work during the eight-week residency explored coral formation and biomineralization (the process by which all living things create minerals, like the material that forms skeletal structures). This ultimately made its way into her Pratt thesis, a plant-grown structure to restore coral reefs called Reef Rocket, which she has continued to develop. The project won IDEO’s Emerging Solutions Award in the CSAA Climate Resiliency Challenge last summer.

“She’s a better designer than I am,” Montgomery says of Lempres. “I was so excited to be able to use my studio to create a platform for her to do a lot of experimental work and she taught so much to our staff here. We benefited so much. It was a two-way street.” ■ andy p smith, bfa writing ’04

Think about who you’re setting your stones with and what types of people or organizations, or what types of values, you want to work with, and create work that appeals to those people. Find a little nugget of a self-directed idea and pursue it.

A Reinvesting Encouragement in the Next Generation

fter first connecting with Pratt’s Saturday Art School while growing up in the neighborhood, Lillian Benson enrolled as a student, setting herself off on a path toward becoming a trailblazing television, video, and feature film editor. She has gone on to edit Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning films including Eyes on the Prize II (1990) and Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis (2015), teach at the University of Southern California, and serve as the first Black woman to be a member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) honorary society. Having recently been appointed chair of ACE’s Diversity in Editing Mentorship Program, Benson holds rare insights into the necessity of supporting the next generation and what it takes to do that work.

What role has mentorship played in your career?

[In film] mentorship plays a critical role in learning how to do your job in post-production. I am a career film and TV editor, and our editing rooms tradition ally are hierarchical—there is a direct chain of command. The entry-level person—the apprentice—learns from the assistant, who learns from the editor. Remember, during the Renaissance the great painters had apprentices, who painted cherubs in the corners as a way of learning. It’s the same principle.

Who was one influential figure for you at Pratt? I was encouraged to explore filmmaking as a profession by my photography professor, Arthur Freed. He saw something in a series of photos of mine that prompted him to say, “you have the best sense of sequence I have ever seen.” I was a scholarship student, a commuter, and filmmaking was way beyond any con cept I had for myself at the time. But the best mentors recognize the unrealized talent of an individual and encourage it.

I have been the beneficiary of this kind of support many times in my career—from the editor who helped me get my first job, to the editor who got me into the union, to the directors who hired me for my first two national PBS series, to the director who helped me move from documentaries into dramatic work. For whatever reason, they saw something in me, they invested in me, and I now return the favor and invest in others.

What has your work with the American Cinema Editors Diversity in Editing Mentorship Program taught you about mentorship?

The ACE Diversity in Editing Mentorship Program is entering its ninth year. We have 18 editors/mentors. Each year, we select 21 new mentees who are referred by ACE members. Anyone is eligible, but we try to encourage candidates from underrepresented communities. Most mentees are asked back for a second year.

As a person of color, I have always considered mentoring young people an obligation. I was lucky that the person who taught me how to assist on fiction projects was the first African American supervising editor at any major New York network, CBS. There were things only he could teach me.

One challenge in finding a mentor is that most young people don’t realize how much effort it takes to be a mentor. And how much time is required. (I know I didn’t when I was coming up.) This can be challenging for people of color since fewer of us are in this line of work.

All mentors know it takes time to do the work, but we also know that if we don’t there won’t be anybody coming up behind us.

What advice would you give fellow mentors on how to support emerging talent in film?

I try to speak the truth. That is my North Star. speak to young people from your spirit

nikolas slackman

They saw something in me, they invested in me, and I now return the favor.

by

Lillian Benson,

Photo

William Stetz

Opening Whole Possible Futures

Laura Henriksen has a multifaceted career as a poet, arts administrator, and educator, wherein every job she does informs the others. After graduating from Pratt in 2012, she began working for The Poetry Project, a nonprofit run from St. Mark’s Church in-theBowery since 1966. She soon became its program director and began curating readings featuring writers whose oeuvres span global literary traditions. This spring, Nightboat Books published her first full-length book, Laura’s Desires. Henriksen returned to Pratt as a professor in 2021, and the writing teacher who helped her break out of her shell and embrace poetry readings, Anselm Berrigan, has transformed from her mentor into her colleague.

You’ve shared that Anselm Berrigan, adjunct assistant professor of writing, is among your Pratt mentors. What was the most influential lesson or wisdom he imparted? How does he continue to inspire you? Anselm helped me in so many ways, it’s hard for me to know where to begin. Absolutely he introduced me to histories of experimental writing that opened up for me whole other possible futures. But maybe to answer this question, I’ll offer something that may seem small, but absolutely changed the course of my life.

When I was his student, I was really horrified at the idea of having to give public readings. There were a million reasons why I found that to be an intolerable concept, to the point that I would have preferred to give up the whole thing entirely and stop writing rather than read my work in front of people. And Anselm was so patient with me, and took my fears so seriously—he would read my writing for me in class when I didn’t feel up to reading, which meant the world to me. It was unforgettable.

At the same time, he would have us listen to archival recordings of poets reading their work, and so I started to get a sense of how much hearing someone’s voice presenting their words transformed the experience of the text—which is not to say that it was better than it was on the page, just a different experience, more embodied and personal, perhaps.

Gradually, with his guidance, I started to understand that there was no right or wrong way to read your work to people, you just do it your way, in a way that feels specific and authentic to the poem, and that really began to alleviate my fears about performance and made me feel more empowered about reading. It still took me many years to not be a total nervous disaster before a reading, but it was at that time that considering the possibility that maybe I could read became available to me at all.

And this lesson expanded far beyond reading my own work—it taught me how absolutely necessary poetry readings are, both as a catalyzing force to maintain a vibrant and growing community of writers, and also as a medium for the poems themselves, a centrally important part of how poems exist in the world. I can’t overstate the significance of this, because now my life is basically organized around poetry readings—giving them, organizing them, hosting them, attending them. And without Anselm’s help at that particularly vulnerable time, none of that would have been possible for me.

That’s just one concrete thing, but it extends far beyond that as well—Anselm’s kindness and generosity as a teacher, his brilliance and music as a poet, these things are close to my heart always, and inspire me daily. ■ nikolas slackman

Fostering Optimism, and Strong Voices

BArch ’90

Brogan,

James

Working at the intersection of architecture and technology, James Brogan, the chief information officer and principal at the architectural design firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), is always problem-solving. Having directed the digital advancement of KPF’s global practice for two decades, Brogan’s leadership skills are often directed toward his clients, helping them adapt to a rapidly shifting digital ecosystem. Over the years, Brogan has begun to apply those same skills to the next generation as a mentor within KPF, helping young architects find their voice in a competitive industry. Brogan has also recently served as a mentor for Pratt’s Dinner with Six program (read more on page 41), where he hosted six undergraduate students for an evening at KPF’s New York headquarters, and imparted wisdom on how he has applied lessons learned at Pratt to his career.

Who was one influential figure for you at Pratt?

[School of Architecture] professor and former dean Sidney Shelov brought an optimism, boundless energy to academia, always highlighting the endless potential and influence an architect has on society. He exposed us to all types of practices large and small—however, knowing my interest in large, global practices, he made it a point of introducing me to these firms and their leaders directly.

Could you tell us a bit about your work with Pratt’s Dinner with Six program?

I have always emphasized the importance of the professional-academic relationship in our profession—both sides can learn so much and there needs to be a strong dialogue between the two. As an alumnus, I have always wanted a closer relationship with Pratt. When I saw the article in Prattfolio on Dinner with Six, I reached out to Annie McLaughlin, assistant director of Alumni Engagement, to volunteer KPF as a host for a future event.

One goal is to give the students exposure to a large global practice, with one objective to meet other Pratt alumni—including one scholarship the firm awards design-school understand their trajectory sional practice and eventually licensure. The one-on-one conversations were enlightening and energizing—and just as when Professor Shelov

sense of optimism and positive contribution while developing a strong purpose and voice in our evolving architectural industry.

student, I found the students energized to learn as much as they could about the profession, and their interest in the various trajecto -

What advice would you give fellow mentors

Be present, available, positive, and proactive (meaning you’ll need to “check in” periodically), and of course be sure the interactionlogue. Avoid too much direct advice, rather empower the mentee to think on their own, be intentional and critical in understanding where they want to go professionally and how to get there. ■

nikolas slackman

Mentorship has become one of my primary responsibilities— to help foster a sense of optimism and positive contribution while developing a strong purpose and voice in our evolving architectural industry.

Perspective, Connections, and “Extreme Possibilities”

Pratt>Forward alumni Taisha Carrington, BFA Fine Arts ’18, and Jamaal Peterman, MFA Fine Arts ’19, on the career-shaping experience of the artist mentorship program

Mentorship and intergenerational knowledge sharing are some of the most transformative gifts an artist can receive.

To that end, Pratt Institute Fine Arts Chair Jane South and alumna Mickalene Thomas, BFA Fine Arts ’00, founded Pratt>Forward, an initiative that since 2021 has offered early-career artists space and resources for creative and professional development, among a circle of mentors that includes fellow artists, curators, gallerists, and thought leaders. Among these creative vanguards— many of whom are generating opportunities for artists through their own projects—are Derrick Adams, BFA Art and Design Education ’96, multidisciplinary artist and the founder of The Last Resort Artist Retreat; Elizabeth Lamb, an arts organizer and director of Company Gallery; and Jasmine Wahi, a curator, activist, and founder and codirector of Project for Empty Space—to name a few. Pratt>Forward’s monthlong program of creative support and community connection aims to give participants career confidence, agency, and a sense of belonging while creating the conditions to generate new artist-led models for cultural engagement. Last fall, as the program announced its 2024 iteration, which took place this March at the World Trade Center, past Pratt>Forward participants and Pratt alumni Taisha Carrington, BFA Fine Arts ’18 (Pratt>Forward 2022), and Jamaal Peterman, MFA Fine Arts ’19 (Pratt>Forward 2021), spoke about their experiences as mentees in the program.

Taisha Carrington:

“My World Changed in 15 Minutes”

Barbadian multidisciplinary artist Taisha Carrington’s work spans body adornment, performance, sculpture, and installation, often exploring Caribbean life, social issues, and climate justice. She has been recognized by NYC Jewelry Week’s One for the Future initiative and the Council of Fashion Designers of America as a CFDA+ Design Graduate and

in 2022 was a finalist for Art Jewelry Forum’s Young Artist Award. Her work is in the collections of Dallas Museum of Art and The Stewart Program for Modern Design in Montreal.

What impact has your experience with Pratt>Forward mentorship had on your career or practice so far?

I participated in Pratt>Forward at a point where two sides of my practice were coming together. Although my BFA is in jewelry design and metalsmithing, since graduating in 2018, I have expanded my practice to incorporate several different mediums including jewelry, film, performance, 2D mixed media works, and a host of other elements. So at the time I applied, I had determined the mediums and themes I was committed to exploring. I had the building blocks but needed to learn how to assemble them to structure my career. I got to a point where I realized I needed input and insight from people with experience. The residency was a way for me to explore how to understand and integrate all that I had built.

Who was one influential figure for you in the Pratt>Forward community? What did their mentorship reveal to you?

Emily McElwreath, a curator and art advisor, was very influential. Throughout the residency, we had the opportunity to do studio visits with some of the artists and creative professional guests that participated in our larger mentorship sessions. I met with Emily early on, maybe in week one. She came to my studio and was very excited about the work. I presented a project and her vision for my work was incredibly expansive—not only in terms of the artwork, but how the art could travel across borders globally and digitally. In so many ways the work exploded, simply from the perspective that she shared with me.

As artists, we have to come up with concepts, figure out how to build things, and actually execute a final product. Within that process, sometimes for me and others, we function in spaces of limitation. You can limit the vision of the work, because you have to deal with practical aspects.

Photo by Mark DiOrio

For me, the biggest practical issue is that I function outside of a global art center. Prior to Pratt, I was in Barbados, where I’m from, and for the past three years I’ve been back in Barbados developing my practice. So there are added layers: access to materials and resources, and issues around how work travels or is exported to places for exhibition purposes.

Emily completely lifted a veil and illuminated where the work could go and how it could get there. Because that was at the beginning of the residency, I ap proached the rest of the residen from a really broad perspective.

I was open to extreme possibilities. And I think when you cross that border, there is no more limitation. You almost enter a new phase of how your practice functions. After that meeting I thought, world just changed in 15 minutes

What led you to seek out mentorship and the Pratt>Forward program specifically?

As I mentioned, I was at a crossroads trying to bridge two worlds (design and art), maybe self-imposed, but they felt very distant. The art jewelry and fine art worlds do not have a lot of overlap, players, or examples of how to navigate seemingly separate careers paths and disciplines.

centrated, potent dose of so many things, which is exactly what I needed at the time.

students and up-and-coming artists on creating

important is to learn to be patient your mediums, and what exactly say right away. But, I think there

to understand that it takes time.

to go through being a baby, a teenager, and then

Pratt>Forward was probably my fourth artist’s residency, so I knew what types of residencies functioned best for me. As someone outside of an art capital doing exploratory work, I need certain environments and facilities, as well as community. I found that certain residencies can provide that for me. Pratt>Forward and its location in New York, where I had familiarity with jewelry artists already, was a good fit. However, I wanted to reenter the city with a new approach to my practice. I knew that Pratt>Forward would provide a very broad ecosystem that I could easily be transplanted into, in a very short space of time. It had a con-

poran Arts (MoCADA), Public Art Fund, and University of Chicago, and galleries including Kavi Gupta in Chicago, James Fuentes in New York, and Vigo in London. He has participated in artist residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MASS MoCA, and Pioneer Works, among others, most recently with the New Haven-based mentorship program NXTHVN.

What impact has your experience with Pratt>Forward mentorship had on your career or practice so far?

My experience with Pratt>Forward has had a significant impact on my career and artistic practice, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 restrictions during my participation.

Emily completely lifted a veil and illuminated where the work could go and how it could get there.

The program provided me with an invaluable opportunity to foster new relationships with fellow artists and mentors. Having individual virtual meetings with highly distinguished working artists offered me unique insights into an interconnected art world. Thanks to Pratt>Forward, I’ve continued to explore avenues of mentorship and community building in my artistic journey.

Who was one influential figure for you in the Pratt>Forward community? What was the most influential lesson or wisdom they imparted?

One of the most influential figures in the Pratt>Forward community for me is Mickalene Thomas. Mickalene’s guidance and conversations have been pivotal in shaping my creative process and thinking. I had the privilege of meeting Mickalene during my MFA at Pratt, and our discussions about my practice have consistently been thought provoking.

What led you to seek out mentorship and the Pratt>Forward program specifically?

My motivation to seek mentorship through the Pratt>Forward program, and specifically from influential figures like Jane South, stems from the profound impact South had on my development during my time at Pratt and as an alumnus. I believed in her vision and wanted to learn what it means to be impactful as an artist and a mentor. Additionally, Pratt>Forward offered a unique opportunity to gain insights from successful career-driven artists, program developers, and innovators. I wanted to learn from the best to become the kind of person creatives can rely on for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Furthermore, it was an excellent way to stay connected to the art community during the pandemic.

There are a few essential lessons I’ve learned from Mickalene. First, she emphasized that one’s art practice is a marathon, but it’s okay to sprint during that marathon, as long as you understand the importance of slowing down and taking your time when needed. Additionally, she highlighted the significance of understanding materials, processes, and archives, and how they are interconnected in our artistic journeys. Mickalene continues to inspire me as both a mentor and an innovative artist.

What advice would you most like to share with students and up-and-coming artists on creating a sustainable life in the arts?

The advice I’d like to share is simple yet crucial: “Go big or go home.” Follow your passion relentlessly and never give up, even when you achieve success. Always stay hungry for knowledge and growth, and remember that your health is just as important as your artistic practice. The creative path can be long and filled with ups and downs, so remain clear about your vision and dare to dream the inconceivable. Even if you fall short, you’ll still land further ahead. ■

diana mcclure

One’s art practice is a marathon, but it’s okay to sprint during that marathon.

Teaching Others to Find the Potential Within

Cesar Santalo is an award-winning visual communications professional, multidisciplinary artist, and educator with vast experience directing and implementing a broad range of design and animation projects. His collage work was recently featured in the Latin Grammy-nominated film Patria y vida: The Power of Music, in the form of a mural that becomes one of the central characters in the documentary. In both his artistic practice and pedagogy, Santalo has developed a practical, forward-thinking, and generous sensibility that affirms the continued importance of artists in today’s workforce. He is currently the dean of the College of Communication and Design at Lynn University.

Who influenced you at Pratt?

My major was drawing, so I had several courses with acclaimed illustrator Professor Jos Smith. He was a well-known illustrator and wrote many children’s and picture books such as Matthew’s Dragon and The Pen & Ink Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist

One of the most extraordinary things I learned from Professor Smith is how to use my imagination through meditation and not always rely on reference, something today’s artists are constantly using, with the in ternet and artificial intelligence. He would talk about his expe rience meditating to transmit alpha waves to boost creativity and mindfulness. I often take Professor Smith’s approach and find I am most creative when washing my car or gardening.

One of my fondest and most memorable experiences was working in the Saturday Art School at Pratt, where the Art and Design Education Department would open their doors to the local community. I taught classes to teens and to their parents and grandparents. The program, which was

founded in 1897, was run by Amy Brook Snider [Professor Emerita of Art and Design Education]. As a student, I always knew education would be part of my career path. While we took art education courses during the week, they were to prepare us for our students on the weekend. Professor Snider always conveyed the message as “what are we teaching, and why are we teaching it?”

Professors Jos Smith and Amy Brook Snider revealed the importance of creativity, imagination, personal connections, and a deeper understanding of the purpose of education. Their influence continues to inspire and shape my artistic and educational pursuits, guiding my creative endeavors and academic career.

How do you work with up-and-coming creatives?

When I work with young emerging artists, I try to encourage them to be sincere with themselves and look within. I always like to ask them why they are artists and what process they enjoy the most. With so many choices and styles available, are they just copying others?

With artificial intelligence, Pinterest, and Google searches, artists are relying on relatively new technologies to find their voice. I try to convey that to find one’s authentic voice, it must be an internal search. For me, it isn’t just how the painting looks at the end, but the enjoyment and challenges of the process. Through the process, you discover your voice and develop instinctual acuity to know what works and does not.

Also, [in the commercial and educational sectors,] as we move from a publisher-based business model to a usercentric approach, artists are the ones who can connect and empathize with customers better than anyone. Artists are the ones that drive user experience design that engages customers. It will come as no surprise that in the future, many CEOs will have design or art degrees that will enable them to design a better future for their companies, their customers, and their employees. Building brands is the same as

nikolas slackman

Cutting a Unique Path, with Help From Fellow Trailblazers

as a vocabulary to describe it. I also feel influenced by many of the people I’ve worked with, either in the way they’ve led their careers or how they balance the personal and professional. Sometimes it’s not just about the work. Sometimes it’s about how someone lives their life around it.

What advice do you have for up-and-coming writers or creatives in the film industry? What’s one thing you wish you knew when you were a student?

Despite setting out to become a producer after graduating from Pratt, multihyphenate filmmaker Liz Hannah found professional success without being bound to a single role. After writing her breakout Golden Globenominated screenplay for The Post, Hannah took on the roles of executive producer, director, and showrunner for two Hulu limited series, The Girl from Plainville and The Dropout, and launched her own production company, Happy Friday Productions. Upon the 2023 premiere of her Kate Winslet-led WWII-era Lee Miller biopic, Lee, and with an adaptation of Alexandra Andrews’s novel Who Is Maud Dixon? forthcoming, Hannah offers insight into her journey and guidance for anyone looking to chart their own path as a creative visionary in film.

How has mentorship affected your career as a filmmaker?

I wouldn’t be the writer, director, or producer I am today without the mentors I’ve been fortunate enough to find. Both with their individual experiences and perspectives, they’ve allowed me a safe space to learn and to have constructive, honest conversations. At the same time, being a mentor is invaluable to me. It’s my responsibility to pay it forward.

Kim Sloane [Associate Professor of Foundation] was my foundation drawing teacher my freshman year at Pratt and I still think about the critiques in that class. Kim’s class made me articulate why I liked or didn’t like something, and make it constructive. He helped me develop my own taste as well

If you write, you’re a writer. Don’t put labels on yourself or make excuses for lack of experience—be honest about it! It’s not a negative—it’s a learning process. I’m still learning. I wish I’d told myself that when I was younger. That sometimes the answer is to not know the answer and to figure it out together.

Listen more. That one still gets me sometimes.

Watch everything and read everything. Don’t watch and read only good things or masterpieces. Watch the bad stuff, learn to formulate an opinion about why it’s not for you so you can start developing what is for you.

You had originally set out to work as a producer, only later becoming a writer and director. What has your career path revealed to you? My education and experience as a producer has definitely helped me in my career as a writer and director. Being a producer, collaboration feels very natural to me, so it’s hard for me to ever turn off that part of my brain. When I’m writing, particularly features, it can be so isolating. I much prefer the part when the draft is done and we can figure out how to make it.

I’m always thinking about my past experiences and education and trying to use that knowledge: every no is just a hurdle to a yes Problem solve. Find great partners. Don’t give up. Don’t let failures define you—use them as a tool for the next project. Sometimes your greatest education is from experience and mistakes—I try to make myself remember that. ■ nikolas slackman

Kim’s class made me articulate why I liked or didn’t like something, and make it constructive. He helped me develop my own taste as well as a vocabulary to describe it.

Who was your Pratt mentor?

In an open call last fall, we asked Pratt alumni about the professors who guided them and helped them find their paths. This is a sampling of their responses. (Italicized titles denote current and emeritus faculty.)

ALEXIS KARL! Visiting Instructor Still a mentor to this day. When you join Alexis’s classes at Pratt, she does not ask your major . . . she approaches everyone as artists who are in her class to explore concepts and to grow creatively. It took the pressure away from feeling like I had to “be a photographer” and allowed me to try out ideas I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I had her junior year and my senior thesis was totally able to thrive because of her. —Claire Hansen, BFA Photography ’20

BEVERLY SEMMES and JOHN MONTI Professor of Fine Arts when they teamtaught Senior Sculpture!

ELEANOR BAUM, dean of engineering. She was always there to help her students, in and out of the classroom.—Terry Mitchell, BEEE ’86

—Shannon Stockbridge, BFA Fine Arts (Sculpture) ’15, Pratt Munson staff

I started out in the School of Architecture in 1968. My freshman English professor, PHILIP RODMAN, got me thinking and reading. Eventually, I transferred to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. I took more literature and aesthetics courses with Professor Rodman, and upon graduation in 1972, he suggested to our very small class that we consider continuing our studies at Pratt’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. I enrolled that summer, worked as an intern at the library under Assistant Director Tad Kumatz, and graduated with an MLS in 1974. This was the start of a 42-year career.—Jean-Jacques Strayer, BA Humanities and Social Sciences ’72; MLS ’74

In the fall of 1974 I arrived in New York determined to study fashion design and make a life here. I took a class in textiles that fall with MURIEL FLEMING. After class one day she asked me what cultural things I had seen or done in the past week. I responded that I was busy with classwork and had hardly left the neighborhood. Muriel’s response has stayed with me for nearly 50 years. I don’t remember her exact words, but this is the meaning behind what she said to me: “Why are you in New York?” And then she gave me instructions: Go to the theater, the movies, museums. Spend an hour or two at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you can’t afford a ticket to the New York Philharmonic, watch what people are wearing as they arrive at Lincoln Center on opening night, or at the Metropolitan Opera. Look at the windows at department stores. Watch people on the street and see what they’re wearing. I did what Muriel told me to do, and I still do. It is rare that a week goes by when I can’t look back at what I’ve seen or heard, in NYC or wherever I happen to be. . . . Culture is still a major driver in my life, and in my work. Thank you, Muriel Fleming.—Susan Woodland, BFA Fashion Design ’77; MSLIS ’97

KATHLEEN DUNNE! Professor of Undergraduate Architecture

—Divya Majithia Shah, BArch ’22

GEORGE MCNEIL gave me the gift of love for art history. It has been an unending joy of my life as a teacher and painter. The art history courses I took from him in grad school were a gift that never ends.—Ursula Gilgulin, BFA Fine Arts ’67; MFA Fine Arts ’72

LENNART ANDERSON was my freshman figure drawing professor from 1967 to 1968. His sensitive instruction instilled a respect for the human figure and a seriousness to the discipline of working from direct observation of the model. His teaching was amplified by his own work, which was being exhibited at that time by the Graham Gallery and at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work was praised by the New York Times art critic John Canaday, who called him, “one of the best painters working in New York today.” His teaching and commitment to his painting has sustained me in my work over the past 50 years.—Douglas R. Giebel, BFA Fine Arts ’71

My mentors at Pratt were PETER BARNA Associate Professor Emeritus and HARVEY BERNSTEIN Adjunct Professor (CCE) of Industrial Design in the industrial design department. I took senior design with them. This was one of my favorite classes, because it integrated everything we had learned, and they inspired us to think both aesthetically and practically. . . . While working on my thesis, I used to travel to Harvey’s office in the Flatiron building, and would have lunch with him and the people that worked in his office and would get feedback from the whole group.

—Marian Gravel, MID ’94

I had a class titled Personnel Administration. The teacher was IRVING PERLMAN. He inspired me to explore that area as a career choice. Thanks to him I pursued an MBA and a lifelong career as a human resources professional. Today I am continuing his legacy by teaching human resources/business classes at Houston Community College.—Barry Halpern, BS Food Science and Management ’68

MEG WACHA! Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Information The thing I appreciate the most about Professor Wacha is their prioritization of students as humans. I always felt welcomed and validated in their classroom, allowing me to make mistakes without shame and nurture topics that I had interest in. It’s all I could ever ask for in a professor!—Miriam Sokolska, MSLIS ’24

JULIE POCHRON! Adjunct Assistant Professor (CCE), and BFA Photography '91

—Kara Birnbaum, BFA Photography ’18

FLOYD HUGHES! Adjunct Associate Professor (CCE) of Undergraduate Communications Design—Jessica Mellen, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’18

Cultivating Perpetual Community

Aubrey Smyth is a Cannes Lions award-winning director with a 14-year career in scripted TV, narrative and documentary films, and commercials. She has premiered three films at Tribeca Film Festival and specializes in directing celebrities, kids of all ages, and character actors in ensemble casts. She is currently participating in the highly selective Disney Entertainment Television Creative Talent Development and Inclusion Directing Program and has directed her first episode of TV for General Hospital

After graduating from Pratt, Smyth established her video production company, Gingersnap. She directed and produced films for the Institute’s Human Resources Department, and from this foundation she built her company to collaborate with advertising agencies and clients. Each year, she mentors Pratt students to offer real-world perspective and has given presentations for the Film/Video Department’s Professional Practices classes, participated on a panel for the Pratt Film Cult student club, and done one-on-one mentorship with Communications Design Professional Practices students.

Who were your Pratt mentors?

If it were not for mentors believing in me, I wouldn’t have my dream career of directing TV, films, and commercials and owning my production company.

Josh Koury [also an alumnus, BFA Film ’01] challenged us to be our best and honed my technical, creative, and leader ship skills. When I became president of the Pratt Film Club, I asked Josh to be the advisor, and he graciously opened his network of industry profession als to create impactful events for the film students. Josh’s independent filmmaking spirit is contagious, and I admire how he turns his artistic vision into self-made success.

I’ll never forget attending the world pre miere of his feature film Film Festival and feeling inspired by his achieve ments. Fast forward nine years, Tribeca

Studios executive produced my first documentary, The Need to Know, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, with Josh serving as the film’s consultant. More than a decade into my career, Josh’s advice has had a significant impact on my directing techniques.

After I received the Outstanding Achievement Award [at Pratt, an honor given by faculty], Deborah Meehan [Professor of Film/ Video] recommended me to Pratt’s Human Resources Department, who hired me to produce videos featuring Pratt faculty, employees, and staff. It was my first job out of college and I took the opportunity to launch my production company, Gingersnap, with Pratt Institute as my first long-term client.

Ramzy Telley [Adjunct Associate Professor (CCE)] was pivotal in crafting my comedy storytelling skills, which resulted in a strong thesis film that won the Audience Choice Award at Pratt’s Wallabout Film Festival and Best Student Film at Chicago Comedy Film Festival. As a direct result, a judge hired me to edit their feature film, which was my second job out of college.

All of my mentors came to the opening of my production company’s office and their kindness proves that community fosters success.

How do you work with emerging creatives in film?

I’m lucky to work in a profession where I directly hire my collaborators. When I graduated, I experienced a lack of women in department-head roles. Change begins with hiring practices, so when I started my company at 21 years old, I was in control of budgets, which gave me hiring responsibilities. And who more qualified for creative challenges than my fellow Pratt alumni? I mentored Pratt students through internships at my production company, for which they received credit and support for their thesis films. To this day I work closely with with Mary Rhymer, BFA Film ’14, for animation; Daniel Ornitz, BArch ’15, for production design; and Suzie Ford, BFA Fashion Design ’10, for

What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers?

Early on, experiment with what you are drawn to artistically and apply that to what is commercially marketable. When your work is undeniably you, people will notice and trust your capability. Four years out of school, I was invited to be represented as a commercial director at a boutique commercial production company and grow my directorial career. My advice for aspiring filmmakers is to make your own luck by applying to competitions for exposure and to continue to evolve your creative voice. I want my work to positively impact people, whether that be

through stories with comedic relief or dramatic life lessons, or that raise awareness for lifesaving health issues. My personal choice is to never repeat myself. So while a project might have a similar tone to my previous work, I use different camera movements and rigs to tell an original story.

At Pratt, I was influenced by professors whose directing specialties ranged from arthouse films to documentaries. Look to creatives in your industry who are where you want to be and draw inspiration from their career trajectory. Create a niche for yourself early on, and then branch out. Be undeniably you! ■

nikolas slackman

I’m lucky to work in a profession where I directly hire my collaborators.

Encouraging Versatility in a Sky’s-the-Limit Industry

Christopher Barrett, BFA

n 2000, only a few years after graduating from Pratt, the video game designer Christopher Barrett was hired by the game studio Bungie—and has been there ever since. First serving as the art director for Halo, then co-creator of Destiny, and most recently as the game director for Marathon, Barrett’s creative vision and work ethic has helped redefine Bungie into one of gaming’s leading companies. (Recently, during the time Barrett was on the board of directors, the company was acquired by Sony in a major deal.) Throughout his career, Barrett has applied the hands-on, problem-solving approach to design he developed and honed as a student at Pratt, and has become a mentor within and beyond Bungie, helping aspiring game designers forge the industry’s future.

Who were your influences at Pratt? Surprisingly, some of my biggest influences were my fellow students. I was lucky enough to meet some extremely talented and driven friends who constantly pushed one another and shared experiences. Our friend ship continues to this day.

My biggest influence from a faculty perspective was my Illustration professor, David Passalacqua. One of the things that I feel was unique to Pratt and his teaching was a focus on problem-solving over technique. Technique or craft is a tool; as an illustrator or commercial de signer, the most important thing is solving a problem in the best, most econom ical way, using any means in your toolkit. He taught me to explore many styles, many ways of approaching problems, and really embrac ing the joy and freedom of creativity within a set of constraints.

A focus on adaptability and problem-solving directly contributed to my ability to tackle (or attempt to tackle) anything thrown at me in my career. Whether it was learning 3D modeling, creating UI designs, building an environment, or new challenges like game design or joining the board of directors—if you are excited to grow and absorb, and have a healthy amount of fear, with a solid foundation of fundamentals, taste, and adaptability—you can take a decent swing at whatever creative challenge you face.

the last five years or so, I’ve been able to provide mentorship to coworkers and individuals interested in my field. Last year, I met with Pratt students who were interested in gaming as a career.

What advice would you give fellow mentors on how to support emerging talent in game design?

Never underestimate the power and influence you have as someone who has been in an industry and succeeded.

I often think of myself as just another person struggling to do their job every day like anyone else. But literally 30 minutes with a new employee, or words of encouragement, a monthly sync, or offering your time— especially to individuals who might be early in their career or facing unique challenges (like being a woman or person of color in the gaming industry)— can make a world of difference [to them], and maybe to the industry as a whole someday.

What advice do you have for up-and-coming game designers in the industry?

I have had many opportunities to learn from peers, professors, and industry veterans. Over

As a senior, I had a portfolio review with a gaming company, and I was overzealous— I was excited about the potential of games. The company apparently complained to Pratt career services because I was “arrogant and disrespectful.” I don’t second guess how I felt, but I could have handled it better. Hey, I was a kid, and I really did believe in what the future of games held and how I could be part of it. Interestingly enough, that company went out of business and I’ve done OK enough <grin>. You have to believe you are better than people give you credit for. But always be humble to others and yourself. Know that you have way more to learn, always. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. ■ nikolas slackman

Breaking New Ground in a Deep-Rooted Craft

With clients including Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Cardi B, and Janelle Monáe, Sarah Sokol is on a mission to bring hats and headpieces back into the spotlight of American fashion. An accomplished milliner, Sokol’s interest in the form came from a passion for sculptural costume couture and through meeting fellow creatives in New York’s nightlife community. Her signature big-brim hats and saucers have helped spark a renaissance in American millinery style.

Who was one influential figure for you at Pratt? Or beyond Pratt? And why? Mentorship plays the biggest part in becom ing a master of any craft. I was lucky enough to work at Arnold Levine’s theatrical millinery shop [in New York City’s Garment District] after graduating from Pratt, where I had the opportunity to build for Broadway, Disney, and other wonderful productions. Arnold’s head milliner, Cigmond Meachen, became my mentor, and I am beyond grateful for that experience. Cigmond has been the most influential fig ure in my millinery career—and she is actual ly a Pratt graduate from 1981! I had previous millinery training from Jacqueline Lamont [Adjunct Professor (CCE) of Fashion Design],

who taught a millinery course at Pratt, Anya Calideno, and Ani Townsend. Anya is a wellknown milliner in New York who also teaches an intensive millinery class. Ani is a milliner in Bristol, known for making the sorting hat in Harry Potter!

You’ve spoken about your pivot into millinery taking place through a number of experiences, including Burning Man. How did mentorship play a role along the way?

I joined the Milliner’s Guild when I first started my millinery journey. There, I met some wonderful milliners, one of whom, Anne DePasquale, directed me toward Arnold Levine’s millinery shop. I was also very involved in the Burning Man community and the creatives there were very supportive. I did a lot of vending in my early career at markets in the Burner community, which introduced me to a ton of amazing craftspeople and artisans.

What advice do you have for young designers?

I have three words of advice for up-and-coming creatives: Find a mentor.

Millinery specifically is such a small field that it’s important to really find someone you admire and learn from them. In the broader sense, I recommend attending artists markets, creating indexes of your favorite designers and stylists. Stylists are a key factor in creating a celebrity’s look.

More broadly, you must be fully dedicated to not only becoming an expert in your craft but building a wide network and creating personal connections. For me, this also meant going out and networking in the nightlife community. There are some extremely talented people in the LGBTQ, drag, burlesque, and Burner communities. Being in a space where people are expressing themselves so fully was very inspiring to me and I was able to build many professional relationships and friendships. The most valuable thing you can ■

nikolas slackman

words

Creating the Support Structure

Eric Trenkamp has straddled career paths as an award-winning filmmaker and author, creating the featurelength film American Bomber (2013) and a monograph on Hollywood’s history of popularizing white supremacy, Race, War, and the Cinematic Myth of America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). A graduate of Pratt’s Media Studies program, Trenkamp also teaches in and serves as assistant chair of the Film/Video Department.

What role has mentorship played in your career?

There were a number of men tors I’ve had through my life who were instrumental in shaping the trajectory of my ca reer, the most recent of whom was Professor Ethan Spigland in Pratt’s grad uate program for media studies. As a result of all the wonderful advice and feedback I’ve received from my various mentors, I feel it is incredibly important for me to pay it forward by helping my students as they begin to take the first steps in shaping their own careers.

What was the most influential lesson or wisdom Professor Spigland imparted? Initially, I had intended for my thesis to be a short essay film with a small written suppor document. Ethan really encouraged me to expand my research until eventually the writ ing component grew from a small supporting

document into a full monograph that eventually became Race, War, and the Cinematic Myth of America. Without Ethan’s encouragement and research recommendations I don’t believe I would have written anything substantial enough to have been published.

What led you to work with young or emerging film professionals?

When I was an undergrad film student in the mid-1990s, the film industry was incredibly difficult to break into. Filmmaking was prohibitively expensive and job opportunities were competitive and often dependent on who you knew rather than the merits of your resume. I feel a karmic duty to repay to the next generation of artists all of the good will, advice, and opportunity that I was lucky enough to experience as a young filmmaker.

What advice do you have for up-and-comers in your industry? What’s one thing you wish you knew when you were a student?

The one thing I wish someone had told me early on is this: Success is subjective. Know exactly what you want from the work and what you want the work to do for you. Know the experience you want to have in creating the work. Define your own metrics of success. Don’t be reliant on other people’s preexisting expectations of your success.

What advice would you give fellow mentors on how to support emerging filmmakers? Every mentee is different— deal with each one as an artist on their own unique path where no previous set of footprints can adequately point

Where should young people in your industry

For anyone interested in traditional indie filmmaking, they should definitely be following The Gotham. For more doc-orientated filmmakers, they should be checking out DCTV. If you’re into more experimental, you probably should be hanging out at Anthology

The joy of living and working in New York City is that there’s a support structure for almost any type of filmmaking. And if there isn’t, nikolas slackman

Success is subjective. Know exactly what you want from the work and what you want the work to do for you. Know the experience you want to have in creating the work. Define your own metrics of success. Don’t be reliant on other people’s preexisting expectations of your success.

The Ripple Effect

Abbey

Miller, BFA Fine Arts ’20, and Analia Segal, adjunct professor (CCE), on mentorship across time and career changes

It’s not uncommon for professional paths to be anything but linear. For alumna Abbey Miller, BFA Fine Arts (Sculpture and Integrated Practices) ’20, studying at Pratt Institute was not only a stage on that journey that honed lifelong skills and sensibilities but a portal to new fields of practice. Miller came to Pratt after studying journalism, attracted to the Fine Arts major’s sculpture and integrated practices emphasis for what she calls its translatability—and her work and explorations at Pratt did serve as a springboard. After graduating, Miller made her way to scientific research, now a first-year PhD candidate in applied social and cultural psychology at Florida International University. Her research interests stem from topics she investigated as a fine arts student, including gender, sexuality, and intimate relationships in relation to perception and identity.

Along the way, Miller developed transformational relationships with several mentors, among them, Analia Segal, adjunct professor (CCE) of fine arts and coordinator of the sculpture and integrated practices emphasis, herself a doctoral candidate at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. At the start of the academic year, Miller and Segal sat down to discuss their ongoing mentoring relationship and research, investigation, and critical practice across disciplines.

ANALIA SEGAL Should we start at the beginning? You and I started to work together during your junior year at Pratt.

ABBEY MILLER Yes, I remember that fondly. I'll never forget the first time I met you. It was my sophomore year—I was a transfer student, and I was still getting acquainted with Pratt culture, and art school culture. Then, in my junior year when we started working together, things really started to click for me. I felt like I had a professor who pushed me, but also gave me trust and support. I started to investigate the things that I was interested in from a more critical lens, more theory, and more research, rather than the tactile approach that had been presented to me from my earliest exposures to art. I was always passionate about whatever I was investigating, and the topics that I grew to have interest in just accumulated from there.

AS I’m thinking about how your education in art opened up doors for critical thinking and dimensions of citizenship for you.

AM You said this to me, and this is something that I share with my students now: your research, whatever field you are in, is a confirmation of an intuition.

I was interested in topics like sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, gender differences. But finding my voice was difficult—what I had the right to say and where I would position myself within a conversation.

We don’t choose how we come into the world, but we do get to choose where we position ourselves in the world and the conversations that we partake in, and how those conversations are enacted—by that I mean, who has a voice, what topics are discussed. My time at Pratt helped me conceptualize where to position myself, and it also helped me to understand how to listen.

AS So, your BFA was a catalyst that allowed you to dive deeper into subject-forming questions and ideas across and beyond disciplines. It makes me think the learning process is a quest to find a way of transforming our instincts into shareable actions. Art as a field is

I feel like the role of mentoring ripples. Students become mentors to others.

As an artist, you always have to examine your perceptions, what perspective you’re coming from. The great thing about art is that there are so many different narratives that are coexistent with each other. I like to think that they’re all equally valid, regardless of whatever social structure is pushing forward at the time.

a place where you’re finding your voice, your drive, and understanding what you have to say and how you can contribute to what is happening in a larger cultural fabric all the time. As you’ve moved forward in your education, you chose a discipline that allows you to have a very different way of thinking about those topics—like you said, you’re still exploring similar issues.

AM Pratt also gave me the ability to tell stories. At Pratt, that was translated in different mediums. I was a fashion minor. So I would use different [approaches] in fashion. And now as a PhD student, that’s done through research. I don’t position myself as the expert, but I am the storyteller. That’s where I want my voice to be.

AS That notion of storytelling is an enthralling intersection of artistic and scientific research, which reminds me of Susan Sontag’s notion that we tell stories both to reveal truth but also to spark imagination.

But psychology is different. Psychology, as a field, is Westernized and white and all of the methods and epistemologies and theories that stem from that perspective cater to the people who created it. Not to say that the field hasn’t acknowledged that extremely narrow and ethnocentric viewpoint. But as somebody who came into this [PhD program], constantly questioning—who’s telling the story here, what’s at play?—I never am satisfied with the finality that one narrative is true or applicable. Science is just another way of telling a story. Whatever story is being told by the researcher or whomever, it needs to be contextual.

As I’m doing my research, I’m thinking about my role in it, and that’s why I say I’m a storyteller, I always keep that at the forefront of my mind. When I go into a project, or if I want to run a study, it’s not about my story. It’s about the participants’ stories, and theirs are the perceptions that matter.

The way that you’re describing your time at Pratt, and with your BFA, it was almost a process of unlearning. In order to find what your place is, you had to unlearn a lot of things. You gave yourself time and space for that to happen, and I think that that’s why you gained the tools to move into this new field, because you embraced that possibility.

As a witness of your work in those years, I believe that there was a commonality throughout your work—it has a lot to do with awareness, being in tune with perception, all kinds of perception, thinking that art can be a platform to nurture or develop that sensibility. Is that accurate?

AM I think that if you’re doing anything, you have to question from what perspective you’re approaching that thing. I’ll speak to art and I’ll speak to psychology.

So yes, to sum up my response, I think perception is extremely important, and it dictates literally everything that I do. Your answer speaks a little bit to a question I had about research as a process of discovery with the potential to transform knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Do you think that artistic research methods and practices that you used at Pratt were helpful and gave you tools for your PhD? Pratt gave me an endless list of skills. The creative tools, learning how to use all this different software—that is huge. Not a lot of people in my field have that.

For example, I can create study stimuli. For the study that I’m doing right now, I’m researching cultural appropriation, and I had to create all of these different logos, some that were culturally appropriative and some that were not. Before I joined this program, [the researchers] would hire a designer to do it, and it cost thousands of dollars. It’s made me an asset to my peers, so I get a lot more collaborations that way—and that kind of thing builds the strength of the community that you’re in.

Also, the literature that I was exposed to during my time at Pratt has given me references to use when creating studies and material to include in my literature reviews.

The work ethic—that’s one of the biggest things. At Pratt, we all had a studio practice, and I learned how to go into the studio and create a space that is conducive to work. Which translates—my studio now is not nearly as exciting as my studio at Pratt, but it is my space, and I’ve created a sanctuary for myself where I feel inspired and excited to go every day to do my work.

So I think those are the three things I would emphasize for students today: the creative skills; the research material itself, literature, history, whatever that means; and studio practice.

AS I think that’s going back to everything we have said, this idea that the skills you acquire might go through a process of translation or interpretation, depending on the field that you end up making a life in, which may not necessarily be art.

AM When I started looking into the PhD in psychology, it just made sense. I could research the things I was interested in at Pratt, but from a scientific research lens. I actually applied twice. The first time, I applied to 13 institutions, and I didn’t get into any of them. So I had a whole year of crisis. But during that time I reached out to somebody who connected me with somebody else in the lab I am in now, the PWR Lab: Power, Women, and Relationships. I sent the principal investigator, Asia Eaton, an email and introduced myself and my background. She invited me to come to lab meetings to see if I liked it, and I was really interested in the work, so one thing led to another.

I joined Dr. Eaton’s lab as a research assistant and started taking on projects—using things I learned at Pratt, like how to self-advocate and pick up new skills, DIY-ing a lot in this new field. It was fun and exciting for me, and when the next application cycle came, [Eaton] encouraged me to apply.

AS Do you believe your education gave you the courage that’s always needed to undertake anything new for the first time? I think that art gives permission that way.

AM It definitely gave me courage. You have to have courage to be vulnerable—and you have to make yourself vulnerable. The more vulnerable I was, to a certain degree, the greater the reward I got.

I think my vulnerability really served me when I was strategic in where I implemented it. So I have definitely been vulnerable with my mentors. I’ve opened up to my mentors in ways that I haven’t with anybody else in my life.

AS How would you describe the role of mentorship in your education and career trajectory?

AM So, I knew I had good mentors at Pratt— you, Analia, and I also loved Carlos [Motta, associate professor of interdisciplinary practice]. I think that mentorship is absolutely critical in navigating your career or wherever it is that you want to go. You and Carlos aren’t psychologists, but you are experts in your field. To me, that expertise translates to other areas of life. And it wasn’t just mentoring me as a student. It was mentoring me as a 21-year-old. I think sometimes that was even more valuable to me than academic or career mentorship. It’s the same way with my advisor now. She does sign my paperwork, but we talk about personal things, we keep it real.

AS The embodiment of artistic practices can be a space for sharing and a scenario to learn about how to coexist, a way of learning how to be two, paraphrasing Luce Irigaray. It also makes me think of the need to emphasize the integration of lived experiences and reciprocity, challenging old methodologies in research in order to find new ways to share it with others. You are very familiar with my approach to sculpture as a medium to write from/with the body, as well as a way of thinking about and through materials. And the significance of the classroom as a space for dialogue that is not only interdisciplinary but also intercultural.

AM The power dynamics completely changed when I entered your and Carlos’s classes, and that was really empowering for me. It led me to trust my advisors because they trusted me.

AS I feel like the role of mentoring ripples. Students become mentors to others. For you and me, it’s not something that stayed in an anecdotal moment in time when we connected. We keep in touch, and now you are teaching, and this conversation itself could resonate with students. So, I know that as a student, you did a lot at Pratt—you really took advantage of how rich the experience on campus can be.

AM You hear this in orientations, there’s a place for everybody. And there really is—and if you don’t find your niche, you can make it. That’s what’s so great about Pratt.

I was an RA, and that’s really when I started to flourish, because I felt the values of being an RA, like being organized and having practical things in check, really complemented the way that I go about my life.

I like to be outside, I like to exercise, I like to take care of myself, I like to eat healthy. This is something that is also emphasized for me now in grad school: Put yourself first. And

that means developing healthy habits so you can put the energy that is required from you into whatever it is you’re pursuing. That’s advice I would give students. If you don’t know how, talk to your peers, and there are services available. Talk to people, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

There was a time when I was struggling mentally and I needed somebody to tell me to seek out a counselor. So, having a strong support system also keeps you accountable. I know it’s difficult for some people to surround themselves with people who are positive influences, but as much as you can, do that.

Don’t be afraid to be a little bold, be a little fearless, because it will serve you well. And when it comes to the translation from art to other fields—like psychology, or math, or medicine—I didn’t really understand the possibilities until I went out and did it myself. So I hope this sheds some light. An art degree is everything. You can literally do whatever you want with it.

AS I’ve been thinking about this idea from the American cognitive psychologist Mark Runco about the creative process’s different stages and phases, which begin with orientation, intense curiosity and information gathering to define the problem, and pro -

cessing information. I think the BFA degree as practice-as-research gives you orientation and incubation for your ideas, and then they can link to what’s next, bringing work out into the world in different ways.

AM One more thing is that I’m dedicated in my practice, in my research, to not keeping fields so compartmentalized, so having this conversation—besides the fact that it’s fun, I love to see you—it’s a huge aspect of my work. For my dissertation, I want to find a way to include artists or artist communities in science, so that door is always open. And if I can help students, I’m always here. I’m a resource, so use me.

AS Just to finalize this discussion of mentorship, I thank you for your trust—I think that it’s vital to sustain relationships throughout time. It’s this idea that you’re net weaving, you’re creating rafts facilitating circulation and connection throughout your life, and they move, they don’t stay at Pratt. ■

The more vulnerable I was, to a certain degree, the greater the reward I got.

jean hartig

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Who was your Pratt mentor?

JOHN LEHR Associate Professor of Photography

—Nicha Chanthanuraks, BFA Photography ’18

In 1963, when I was in the final semester of the MS program, I had a dispute with a professor over my submissions for his 3D class. Frustrated, I stopped going to class . . . PHILIP PEARLSTEIN, my painting instructor in my final year, heard of this dispute and contacted me, suggesting that I go talk to the teacher in question. I did this, and it was mutually decided that I did not have to attend more classes but would need to submit a final project to the class at the end of the semester. Well, I did a sculpture out of a six-foot fragment of a choppeddown telephone pole—spikes and all (which I must have had help getting back to my room on Waverly Avenue). Anyway, I submitted the work of art at the end of the semester, passed the class, and graduated from Pratt, later becoming an art teacher in the Baltimore area for 25 years.—Francis Katz, BS Art Education ’62; MS Art Education ’63

CHARLES GOSLIN was a mentor to many, including me. He taught his students to think in ideas and speak those ideas in an exciting visual language. He gave me the foundations to become a strong designer and taught me by example how to teach.—Michelle Nahum-Albright, BFA Communications Design ’75

FATHER MICHAEL PERRY—Nívea Ortiz, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’90

GERRY CONTRERAS Professor Emeritus of Undergraduate Communications Design was head of the Communications Design department and taught illustration classes during my time at Pratt in the late ’80s. He was an outstanding and personable educator that stressed the value of drawing fundamentals. Gerry challenged students and faculty to maintain high standards of quality and productivity and left a lasting impression on my work ethic and creative thinking.—Chris Nelson, Communications Design (Illustration)

I attended Pratt from 1984 to 1989. Two of the most important teachers I had then, whom I’m still in touch with, were MAX GIMBLETT, and TOSHIO ODATE.—Eric Manigian, BFA ’89

ANITA MERK Adjunct Assistant Professor of Undergraduate Communications Design taught me how to be a great graphic designer. She was tough but fair.—Jeff Rothberg, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’11

DWIGHT JOHNSON was my professor for Light, Color, and Design when I attended Pratt in the ’80s. As a professor, Mr. Johnson helped me understand and explore how powerful color is when creating visual messages, but he helped even more by showing me what it was like to work as a designer. He gave me my first (paid) freelance opportunity doing mechanical work in his studio [and he] would walk me through the process of freelance work, working in-house, how to prep a portfolio, getting internships, how important networking is, and the business end of design. The best plus was that he happened to be one of the few Black design professors at the time, and that was such an inspiration to me.—Andrew Bass Jr., BFA Communications Design ’85

LAWRENCE BLOUGH Professor of Undergraduate Architecture —Meshal Alradadi, BArch ’23

KATHERINE HUALA! Assistant Professor of Art and Design Education—Rebecca Yu, BFA Art and Design Education ’23; MA Art and Design Education ’24

Even as I studied under her at a relatively early stage in my design development, I would say JANE HAIMES-CANTRES was truly my mentor. She taught a particularly comprehensive foundation year LCD (Light, Color, and Design) course . . . Jane’s curriculum incorporated both an academic and a scientific approach to learning design, but perhaps more importantly, it was also a mini-tour through art history. I can proudly thank her for my perfectionism when dealing in all things color theory (or hate her for it!). I am sure that her teaching made me “see” so much more to the world.—Andrew Sturgess, BFA Communications Design ’98

CLAUDIA BITRAN! Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts She pushed me to accomplish so much. Professor Bitran would take the time to talk to all students individually and really focus on what they need for their art. When I was having a hard time, trying to appease an audience instead of focusing on what I wanted to say, without even realizing that’s what I was doing, she sat me down and pointed that out to me, and since that moment, my art has really transformed and changed into something I’m absolutely proud of. —Karisa (Clem) Hahn, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’23

I go way back to 1957 while majoring in illustration. RICHARD LINDNER was an unforgettable influence. He stretched our imaginations to their fullest and made us really think about what we were creating and the feelings our art could generate. I thank him every time I sit down at my drawing board! Debby Davis, Certificate, Textile Design ’61

Read more at pratt.edu/prattfolio.

Someone in Your Corner

Andy P.

Smith, BFA Writing

’04, on what makes a mentor, and one relationship that’s carried him through

When I was a writing student at Pratt, I once asked my professor Steven Doloff for advice. At the time, I was the eager editor of the student magazine, The Prattler, and wanted Doloff to weigh in on a potentially controversial story I was considering for the magazine. I’m almost certain we ran the story. I can’t quite remember—this was 20 years ago—but what I do remember is what Doloff said to me: “It’s art school, after all!”

More than a recommendation or advice, it was a battle cry, a call to arms, the bright white text on an inspirational poster: “It’s art school” meant “Go for it.” Because, “after all,” this was a place, a space, a time in which, yes, young students were trained in art making, in how to translate their creativity into work that is genuine and meaningful. But that requires taking risks.

Doloff was encouraging me but also vouching for me—as he would many times during our now 20-year friendship—let ting me know I was free to try anything I wanted, free to fail. And this is why I consider Doloff to be a trusted mentor, albeit a rather untraditional one—what I mean is that even Doloff doesn’t consider himself a mentor.

You see, Doloff has never gotten me a job, has never published my writing, has never produced my work. He has given me feed back and pep talks but rarely has that yielded professional fruit or career advancement. For most people, this doesn’t look much like mentorship. But what does true mentorship actually look like?

Mentorship, as defined by guidance—I think that’s a red herring. To me, mentorship is not someone helping you solve your problems, or clearing a path, or otherwise making things easier.

meet a lot of teachers and you’re going to meet a lot of writers who come to visit your class. It’s really entirely on you for them to know who you are. You have to introduce yourself and talk to people. Be sociable.’”

I believe he has followed his own advice to the great benefit of his career. Now in his 40th year as a professor at Pratt, with more than 100 writing and playwriting credits, he was also a producer of the longstanding Emmy-award-winning TV talk show Theater Talk, which during its 25-year run invited Broadway stars to talk shop and share personal anecdotes. Susan Haskins-Doloff hosted and executive produced the show (while also teaching at Pratt for over 20 years) with guests including James Gandolfini, Joan Rivers, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Hudson, Jeff Daniels, and George Takei, to name a few.

No one understands that better than Doloff. “It’s not me telling them what to do,” he says of how he teaches and advises his writing students, particularly the incoming class of writing majors. “I’m their first class, the World Literature class. And I tell them all, ‘You’re gonna meet a lot of people here, aside from the person sitting next to you. You’re going to

Which brings me to another invaluable piece of Doloff’s advice: “Don’t expect to make to make a living!” he says. “And if you can find a way to balance your passion and some other way to pay the rent—you’re in the game. And you never know what’ll hit. You have to be maniacally persistent, even in the face of rejection.”

When I first arrived at Pratt, in New York City, as an 18-yearold aspiring writer, suddenly thrust into what Doloff calls “this incredible crush of people,” I was overwhelmed and intimidated. But as I began to meet people, engage with the wide range of individuals at Pratt, I found not only a tribe of similarly ambitious students but also a kind cadre of professors and professionals who, if nothing else, were sincere and direct with me. And that honesty was super valuable if sometimes critical. Perhaps, that’s what true mentorship is—harsh honesty?

Perseverance, passion, personability—it’s these qualities that Doloff has helped instill in me, and I’m sure many others. Pratt’s motto, “Be true to your work and your work will be true to you,” I read as an axiom about discipline and authenticity. Sure, it’s about honesty, being honest with yourself and with others. And that’s not easy either. It’s hard to take risks, and persist against rejection, and make work that is true. But it helps when you have someone like Doloff in your corner, reminding you that it’s art school, after all—once literally, and forever figuratively. And if that’s not mentorship, I don’t know what is. ■

Alumni Guiding Alumni

Over the past year, Pratt Institute Alumni Engagement has developed new programs to support alumni and students as they advance their careers. Here are three initiatives to know about that connect the expertise of seasoned Pratt graduates with fellow alumni and alumni-to-be.

Making Your Mark

In this new virtual speaker series, alumni from across disciplines join fellow Pratt graduates and students for an interview and discussion on their careers and the finer points of professional practice. Recent events have delved into how to build a client base, with Alyssa Phillips, BFA Communications Design ’15, owner of Amp’d Designs, and creating a career path to television production, with Scott Weinstein, BFA Film/Television ’97, coproducer of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, in midday sessions held on Zoom. View the event recordings at talks.pratt.edu

Young Alumni Mentorship Program

Launched this spring, the new Young Alumni Mentorship Program pairs alumni at different points on their professional paths to encourage one-on-one connections and knowledge sharing. Focused on in-person mentoring, the initiative is piloting in New York City, where many Pratt alumni live and have established, or are building the foundations of, their careers.

Dinner with Six

Current Pratt students and alumni come together for a meal and conversation in this program kicked off in late 2022. In each iteration, an alum hosts six students majoring in their field for a casual gathering to share professional experiences and industry insights. New York City-based alumni interested in hosting a Dinner with Six are encouraged to get in touch with Alumni Engagement at alumni@pratt.edu. Read more at pratt.edu /news/dinner-with-six

Protecting Watersheds and Planting Poems during Pratt Earth Action Week

On a sunny Saturday last fall, Pratt students, faculty, and staff gathered at Coney Island Creek Park Shore to pick up trash that would otherwise get carried by the wind or tides into the Atlantic Ocean. The garbage was classified by the type—lids, bottles, cigarette butts—with the data sent to the Ocean Conservancy and New York Littoral Society for advocacy efforts. The world’s oceans face huge challenges, from rising temperatures and acidification to overfishing and pollution, but small community interventions like this are key to understanding the problems, building coalitions, and spurring environmental protections.

Students in the Watershed Planning studio taught by Ira Stern, adjunct associate professor in Pratt’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE), took the lead in organizing the clean-up as part of Pratt Earth Action Week, a mix of academic presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and hands-on activities created by the Pratt Sustainability Center to highlight ongoing sustainability efforts by students, faculty, and staff.

“We’re celebrating the action that’s happening at Pratt, the work that’s being generated, and also providing opportunities for people to feel empowered as individuals to make change,” said Carolyn Shafer, director of the Pratt Sustainability Center.

The weeklong series of events, held in both fall and spring semesters, is part of a larger commitment to environmental action at Pratt, which is coordinating and developing resources to further integrate sustainability into the academic experience of all students. In September 2023, Pratt received an AASHE STARS Gold

Highlights from Pratt Institute’s News Page

Read the full articles and keep up on the latest from campus and beyond at pratt.edu/news.

rating from the 2023 AASHE Sustainable Campus Index (SCI), ranking in the top 10 for overall performance among schools that award graduate degrees. Pratt received particularly high marks for campus engagement, curriculum, and research, areas that were displayed throughout Pratt Earth Action Week.

Alongside the beach clean-up, events included the panel “Sustainability Is a Racial Justice Issue,” with Chelsea Grays, assistant professor of fashion, and Kimberly M. Jenkins, founder of The Fashion and Race Database and former visiting assistant professor of fashion at Pratt.

The student group Envirolutions hosted a clothing swap, and another event, “Style Over Shein: Choosing Memories Over Materialism,” helped participants reconnect with the clothes they already own.

The graduate student-run Leaders of Environmental Action at Pratt (LEAP) guided a group writing letters in support of a statewide effort to designate community gardens as Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs). This campaign has been championed by members of the Pratt community, including Raymond Figueroa, GCPE professor and New York City Community Garden Coalition president, who was on hand to talk about the CEA initiative.

Throughout the week, students learned how to propagate plants and navigate the urban trails of Brooklyn. They wrote poems that imagined better futures and planted them with seeds in the Pratt Textile Dye Garden’s newly launched Writer’s Plot. An in-person workshop allowed students, faculty, and community members to think about how the Alaska Native community of Quinhagak could adapt to escalating climate risks through hydroponic systems and greenhouses.

Meanwhile, the Creative Enterprise Leadership Program shared awardwinning capstone projects from last spring including a solar-powered aquaculture hatchery, an AI program for collecting and reporting ESG data, and a consultancy focused on indigenous cultural preservation, as well as work-in-progress capstone projects inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The momentum, ideas, and connections made during the week will be championed by Pratt’s environmental student groups and Departmental Sustainability Coordinators, incorporated into studios, research projects, and events, and built upon in future iterations of Pratt Earth Action Week.

“Environmental sustainability is about social and cultural issues as well as human health,” Shafer said.

“As educators and artists and designers we need to set students up for success by addressing sustainability in a comprehensive way, both generally through gen-ed courses but also specifically through the lens of each single discipline we teach here.”

Pratt Centers Justice in Its First Cluster Hire

Pratt launched its first cluster hire, “Diverse Voices Creating Just Futures,” which creates five new tenure-track faculty positions at the level of assistant professor, one in each of the Institute’s five degree-granting schools.

“The Institute has a longstanding commitment to nurturing and sustaining a diverse community— from its founding in 1887, when it welcomed students from all walks of life, through the present day, when hiring and supporting a diverse faculty is an explicit commitment of our strategic plan. This cluster hire is both a resounding affirmation of that commitment and an extension of it,” said Provost Donna Heiland.

“Our students are going to make the things in the world and we have to make sure they’re grounded in principles of sustainability.”

—Carolyn Shafer, director of the Pratt Sustainability Center, during Pratt Earth Action Week in fall 2023

This page: Fall 2023 Pratt Earth Action Week events. Plant Propagation Workshop, held in the Foundations Lab; photo by Tejas Setlur, BFA Film ’26 (top). Coney Island Creek Park Beach Clean-Up; photo by Megan Proctor, BFA Photography ’25

Timeless and Innovative

Because of his tremendous gratitude for the education he received at Pratt Institute, Delbert I. Footer, BID ’53, established an endowed scholarship fund for Industrial Design students in 2014.

He wanted to make a larger impact for Pratt in the future by establishing a bequest in his will that would supplement his endowed scholarship fund and enable Pratt students to benefit for decades to come.

As Del said, “I don’t think any other school could have prepared me for my future other than Pratt. It forced me to better myself and set higher standards of accomplishment by subjecting me to continuing and increasingly more difficult curricula agendas.”

Del’s future gift entitled him to a Bequest Challenge match that provided current funding to the School of Design.

Pratt is in the midst of a $500,000 Bequest Challenge to create a groundswell of support for its future.

We invite you to build upon Charles Pratt’s legacy and join the Bequest Challenge to secure Pratt Institute’s future. In return for informing us of your future gift to Pratt, the Institute will match up to $10,000 for a current use gift now. If you do not wish to share the exact amount of your bequest, Pratt will match $1,000 to support an area of your choosing.

Naming Pratt Institute in your estate plan is an extraordinary expression of generosity during this time.

For more information, please contact Rob Danzig, director of planned giving, at 718.399.4296 or rdanzig@pratt.edu or 200 Willoughby Avenue, Myrtle Hall 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11205.

Del Footer, BID ‘53, with daughter, Jill

Pratt strives to foster transformative learning environments through its All-Institute Learning Goals. Issues such as justice, sustainability, and global citizenship are woven into curriculum and throughout a student’s educational journey, equipping them with skills and perspectives to make a positive impact on the world.

The new faculty members will work to help students achieve these goals, as well as the larger Strategic Plan. They will also be supported in their individual scholarship and creative work and will have the opportunity to collaborate on multidisciplinary research and projects, working together to envision just futures at Pratt and beyond.

School of Architecture Opens New Reading Room

Last December, Pratt faculty, staff, students, and alumni gathered in Higgins Hall to celebrate the unveiling of the new Pratt School of Architecture Reading Room, which houses the book collection of William “Bill” Menking, who taught for three decades in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.

The William “Bill” Menking Book Collection includes more than 2,000

volumes spanning architecture, urbanism, and design. Diana Darling, cofounder of The Architect’s Newspaper with Menking, her husband, shared stories of Menking’s love of the built and natural environment, travel, and connecting people.

For three decades beginning in 1990, Menking taught in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, where he led a history survey course. He also taught in the Pratt Berlin Studio for several years and joined Pratt Institute’s Board of Trustees as a faculty member. Prior to his death in 2020, plans had been made for a reading room at Pratt to house his collection and his will stipulated the donation of books.

“We are excited to have this asset open for the school and happy that Bill Menking’s legacy lives on within our community,” said Quilian Riano, dean of the School of Architecture. “We will cherish this gift and I am sure we will see the inspiration in studios and seminars for years to come.”

Pratt Honors Three Graduates with 2024 Alumni Achievement Awards

On March 19, the Pratt Institute 2024 Alumni Achievement Awards were presented to three accomplished

alumni at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. The awards recognize outstanding graduates who have distinguished themselves in their fields, who have earned a high degree of respect among their colleagues and in the general community, and whose impact has been felt on a regional, national, or international level. The award recipients were chosen through a nomination process and selected by a committee of past Alumni Achievement Award honorees.

This year’s awards went to Marilyn Nance, BFA Communications Design ’76, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors a Pratt graduate whose work has challenged existing paradigms over the course of a prominent career; Nasreen Alkhateeb, BFA Fine Arts ’07, who received the Impact Award, which recognizes a Pratt graduate for contributions that have made a deep and meaningful positive impact; and Devin B. Johnson, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19, who received the Rising Star Award, which recognizes a Pratt graduate for significant success and promise of sustained contributions to their creative industry.

The 2024 Alumni Achievement Awards were presented to (second from left to right) Nasreen Alkhateeb, BFA Fine Arts ’07; Devin B. Johnson, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19; and Marilyn Nance, BFA Communications Design ’76, shown here with Pratt President Frances Bronet at the celebration at the Museum of Arts and Design in March. Photo by Andrew Werner. Courtesy of Pratt Alumni Engagement

Pratt Remembers Trustee

Emeritus Bruce M. Newman ’53 Bruce M. Newman, Trustee Emeritus and alumnus of Pratt Institute, and a devoted longtime supporter of the school, passed away on February 9. He was 94. Newman’s considerable contributions to the Institute over more than 40 years, as a board member (1983–1996), transformational donor, and champion of students, have made a lasting impact on the Pratt community.

Newman’s long-standing support of Pratt has included beautification projects that have helped create a distinguished campus celebrated for its inspired landscape and unifying features, from the South Hall amphitheater and the sculptural red clock—which Newman designed— on Newman Mall, to the awardwinning and much-lauded redesign of the Engineering Quadrangle. Most recently, a significant gift from Newman made possible the establishment, in 2022, of Schutte Plaza, a 15,000-square foot swath of greenspace that welcomes Pratt community members to study, create, and commune among the surrounding trees and sculptures. All of these environmental elements have contributed, as he said at the time of Schutte Plaza’s naming, to the energy of Pratt’s Brooklyn campus and “a spirit of

Newman’s advocacy for the student experience reached beyond campus as well. In 2020, he helped fund supply kits for all Foundation students that provided essential tools and rials they would need in their first-year classes. In 2013, Newman worked with art dealer Larry Gagosian to arrange a special exhibition in Manhattan of thesis work by fine arts students affected by a fire that winter in Pratt’s Main Building.

In 1993, Newman was named “Man of the Year” at Pratt, and he received an honorary degree in 1997. In 2014, he received the Alumni Achievement Award for Distinguished Service.

“Bruce once said, ‘When you landscape, the buildings surrounding it come to life.’ Indeed, Bruce’s enduring commitment to the life of our community, experienced every day by our students and all who pass through our beautiful campus, will resonate for generations,” said Pratt President Frances Bronet. “His abundant care and dedication live on in the countless designers, artists, and creative minds who have found Pratt a space of reflection, connection, and innovation. He will be deeply missed.”

More Headlines

City Council Commits $850,000 to Pratt Center’s Made in NYC Initiative: MINYC supports more than 1,500 local manufacturers across the city.

A New Program Puts Self-Care at the Center of Creative Success: The Mindfulness Collaboratory at Pratt connects creative professionals from around the world to bring intention, meditation, and reflective practices to their work.

Faculty Receive Fulbright Specialist Awards for Projects Abroad: Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts Analia Segal and Visiting Professor of Art and Design Education Theodora Skipitares worked on projects in Madrid and Bethlehem.

Students Hone Career Skills in NYC Garment District Internships: Eight Pratt students participated in a program organized by the Pratt Center for Community Development’s Made in NYC initiative.

Legends 2023 Gala Raises Vital Funds for Student Scholarships: The festive evening celebrated Pratt alumni Kenneth Cobonpue, Edward Mazria, and Kay WalkingStick as creative icons.

Pratt Students Build Bridges at the Seoul Biennale: Two Pratt studios were invited to display their designs for bridges crossing the Han River at the Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism 2023.

New Views and Inspiration for Pratt Artists: Pratt’s graduate facilities in Fine Arts and Photography will move to the Dock 72 building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a hub of creative collaboration and innovation.

Pratt’s AquaSteady Project Receives $5 Million NSF Award: The US National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator supports Pratt’s interdisciplinary AquaSteady project to contribute to food and nutrition security.

Helping Island Cities Adapt to Climate Change: Pratt Institute’s new Center for Climate Adaptation is spearheading research and design-based solutions for communities on the front lines of climate change.

For more on these stories and the latest updates from Pratt, visit pratt.edu/news

Legends 2023 celebrated Pratt Institute alumni Kenneth Cobonpue, Edward Mazria, and Kay WalkingStick. Left to right: Marisa Mazria Katz, Board of Trustees Chair Gary Hattem, Kay WalkingStick, Pratt Institute President Frances Bronet, and Kenneth Cobonpue. Photo by Andrew Werner

building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a hub of creative collaboration and innovation.

1. John Pai: Liquid Steel by John Yau with contributions from Darren Aronofsky

John Pai, BID ’62; MFA Fine Arts (Sculpture), Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts

The first comprehensive monograph on Korean-American sculptor and influential Pratt professor John Pai surveys the artist’s full career creating intricate, three-dimensional abstract “drawings in space.” Featuring rarely seen early pieces up to present-day work, the book also reveals Pai’s process, from choosing materials to welding and bending metals into massive sculptural forms—all of which he continues to do himself. Pai began teaching fine arts at Pratt in 1965 as the youngest-ever professor appointed by the school, and retired from teaching in 2000 to focus on his artistic practice full-time. Available at rizzoliusa.com

2. Festa Credenza by Todd Merrill Studio and Ranalli Architects George Ranalli, BArch ’72

A recent partnership with Todd Merrill Studio marks the first time that original furniture designs by George Ranalli, an architect and designer for over 40 years, are available to the public. One of five limited-edition, hand-crafted furniture pieces available from the studio, Ranalli’s Festa Credenza, shown here in blue with brass accents, is a “contemporary reboot of the traditional sideboard,” with architectural details and artful styling made to resemble a bird in flight. Learn more at toddmerrillstudio.com

3. Collide Collection by Kuzco Lighting Ryan Pauly, BID ’02, and Cody Stonerock

With their award-winning Collide Collection, Kuzco Lighting brings together modern sculptural elements and organic forms, mimicking ocean waves. The fixtures pair curved LED strips with frosted silicone diffusers and dark, powder-coated black aluminum to create rings of light. Collide won Best Lighting of the Year 2023 in the Prize Designs for Modern Furniture + Lighting 2023 awards organized by Global Design News and the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. Learn more at kuzcolighting.com

Known for colorful patterns, ethereal imagery, and 3D embellishments, Samantha Pleet’s self-titled line started in 2007 with a focus on exploring “magical clothes that are one with nature—that can also take you back to the city.” All of Pleet’s pieces are sustainably made from natural, organic, and available stock fabrics. This fair-trade-made, embroidered canvas Fairy Bag can be styled multiple ways, either worn cross-body or as a shoulder bag when knotted. Available at samanthapleet.com

5. Again Vinyl LP by Oneohtrix Point Never (Warp Records) Daniel Lopatin, MSLIS ’10

Again is the 10th album from Oneohtrix Point Never, the project of Mercury Prize-nominated producer and performer Daniel Lopatin. A recent New Yorker profile covering the artist's unconventional career praised the record for its sonic versatility, building “a space—uncanny, warped, almost purgatorial—in which various eras and ideas, both dead and alive, can speak to one another.” This 13-track release comes in a special-edition blue vinyl as well as CD and digital formats. Available at warp.net

6. Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums: Stories and Memorable Moments from People Who Love Museums (Chronicle Books) Bob Eckstein, BFA Communications Design ’85

This new release from New Yorker cartoonist and New York Times bestseller Bob Eckstein puts a playful twist on the more traditional art history book, showing a different side of museums from MoMA and the Guggenheim to the Museum of Bad Art and the Museum of Jurassic Technology. More than 155 original pieces of artwork couple with stories and anecdotes from curators, museum workers, and visitors in this “love letter to museums and museum-goers.” Available at chroniclebooks.com

7. Muse Pendant by Ruveil Gabrielle Nicole Saunders, BFA Fine Arts (Jewelry) ’13

The newest collection from Gabrielle Nicole Saunders’s brand Ruveil draws inspiration from the power of adornment and jewelry as a form of storytelling. The Trance Series features the Muse Pendant, with a deep blue, trillion cut tanzanite, a gemstone said to have healing properties of detoxification and soothing of the mind. Ruveil’s handmade pieces use materials and gemstones sourced as sustainably as possible. Available at ruveil.com

8. Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook by Alison Roman (Clarkson Potter) Chris Bernabeo, BFA Film ’13

With culinary imagery shot in unexpected detail, Alison Roman’s latest New York Times bestselling cookbook, Sweet Enough, comes to life through the lens of photographer Chris Bernabeo. In his first foray into the food world after a decade of shooting portrait and fashion photography, Bernabeo’s colorful images illustrate Roman’s “casual, effortless, chic” recipes in this guide to dessert making across skill levels and time constraints, geared toward cooks without specialty ingredients and equipment. Available at penguinrandomhouse.com

Design Your Next Step.

Pratt is where you learned, where you grew, where you connected on Pratt’s renowned Brooklyn or Manhattan campus. Come back and continue your journey, where courses are offered in-person, online, or in hybrid learning format to best suit your goals. Are you looking to take a course for fun or enrichment, or to test an idea? You can. And, many of our courses can be taken individually or as part of a certificate.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS

Advanced Perfumery

AI Design

Art & Business of Perfumery

Branding & Digital Marketing

CAD Design

Creative Careers

Creative Interiors

Design Business

Digital Design

Digital Product Design

ELL Portfolio

Exhibition Design

Fashion New Media

Fine Art

Furniture Design

Graphic Design

Human-Centered Design

Photography & Video Production

Sustainable Design

UX/UI Design

Web Design

CREDIT AND NONCREDIT PROGRAMS AND COURSES

• Graduate Preparatory Courses

• PreCollege Program for High School Students

• Summer Intensives (credit and noncredit)

BROWSE COURSES www.pratt.edu/scps

CONTACT US SCPS-noncredit@pratt.edu

Class Notes

1920s

John F. Gould, General Art ’26, (19061996), well known for his work in The Saturday Evening Post and for national corporations such as General Electric Company, had original artwork exhibited for the first time in New York City at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. The show spanned part of Gould’s 70-year career from 1929, the year he was hired to teach art at Pratt Institute, where he continued to work for 22 years, through 1970. The show ran from August 2 to September 30, 2023, and highlighted the artist’s use of color, composition, and contrast.

1960s

Joan D’Onofrio, BFA Fine Arts ’60, is “currently 85 years old and still going strong.” For the last eight years, she published a 15-page newsletter every week for Rotary International, a Rotary Club she is a member of. Through this organization, she has received a grant to fund her Art in a Box program, in which she and a team of Rotarians send a 9 x 12-inch box filled with art supplies to more than 500 unhoused students throughout the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in California.

Barbara Nessim, BFA Graphic Art and Illustration ’60, had a solo exhibition of works on paper, Balancing Act: Drawings 1969–1974, at Derek Eller Gallery. In a press release, the gallery described Nessim’s portraits as “depictions of enigmatic female archetypes which reflected the zeitgeist of a pivotal moment in women’s history,” saying, “it is entirely plausible to

Class Notes is Pratt alumni news compiled from alumni submissions, items shared by faculty and staff, graduates’ newsletters, and media mentions. Send your updates from work and life: see page 61 for submission guidelines.

recognize Nessim’s women from 1969–74 as harbingers for a new era in gender equality.” (artist’s newsletter)

Malcolm Holzman, BArch ’63, received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the South at the school’s annual Advent Convocation ceremony. He was recognized by the university’s 18th vice chancellor, faculty, and board of regents as “one of our nation’s leading

architects and one who has made an indelible mark on the architectural landscape of Sewanee.” McClurg Hall, which he designed, opened in 2000 and is a gathering space where the university’s students, faculty, and staff regularly dine. Holzman is a partner at Steinberg Hart.

Everardo Jefferson, BID ’68, and his award-winning architecture firm Caples Jefferson, cofounded by Sara

Barbara Nessim ’60, Dancing Within Two Sculptures , 1969, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 14 x 10.25 inches

Caples, designed the newly opened Louis Armstrong Center in Corona, Queens. The 14,000-square-foot building houses the Louis Armstrong Archive, a 75-seat performance venue, and an art exhibition, Here to Stay, which explores Louis Armstrong’s life and more-than-five-decade-long career.

Claire Jeanine Satin, MFA Fine Arts (Sculpture) ’68, was featured in the two-part exhibition Women’s Voices, which was on view at the Miami-Dade Public Library System through March. The respective exhibition parts, “A Journey through Miami’s Art History” and “New Perspectives in the Archives,” celebrated artists who defined the women’s art movement from the 1970s to the 2000s and the legacies of Women Artist Archives Miami (WAAM) contributors. Additionally, Satin was featured in Books on Books, a website on book art curated by collector and publisher Robert Bolick. The post explores selections from Satin’s work featured in Bolick’s collection.

William J. Gallo, AIA, BArch ’69, was recently appointed to the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) for the Nova Southeastern University, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine. The ELC comprises an esteemed group of community leaders who support the mission of the

Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine (NSU MD), advise the dean

bassadors for the college.

1970s

Michela Griffo, MFA Fine Arts ’70, was invited by Joshua Bell, Grammy Award-winning violinist and the subject of Griffo’s painting Virtuoso on The Titanic, to a recent concert.

“It was certainly a night to remember,”

Douglas R. Giebel, BFA Fine Arts ’71, recently had his painting Studio Still Life purchased for the permanent collection of Concordia University in Irvine, California. He currently teaches drawing, painting, and art history classes at Wesleyan College, having been awarded emeritus status in 2016.

James A. Humphrey, BFA Media Studies ’72, published three historical novels in 2023: Cherokee Rock, Cherokee Rose, and Cherokee Reel Humphrey, a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma citizen, refers to this triptych as the Cherokee Trilogy. These books follow an extended family’s struggles through Cherokee history from 1779 through post-Civil War Reconstruction, spanning historical battles, confrontations with identity molding demigods, and trials that set national precedents for Indigenous rights.

Lisa Lyman Adams, BFA Fine Arts ’73, based in Mystic, Connecticut, had an acrylic painting, The Invitation, included in the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) juried show. The show’s theme was “emergence,” and it was on view from November 4 through December 9, 2023, in CAFA’s virtual gallery. Adams’s piece now hangs at Stonington Gallery in the Velvet Mill in Stonington, Connecticut. She continues to practice fine art and illustration, and currently teaches basic drawing and creative thinking at Mystic Museum of Art in Mystic, Connecticut, and South Michela Griffo ’70, Virtuoso on the Titanic , 2010, oil, pencil, and ink on canvas, 44 x 58 inches ( top ). Douglas R. Giebel ’71, Studio Still Life , oil on canvas, 32 x 36 inches

County Art Association in Kingston, Rhode Island. Her website is lisa adamsart.com.

Philomena Marano, BFA Fine Arts ’74, was featured on FOX 13 Tampa Bay and ABC7 Sarasota, discussing her unique art practice, which includes assembling hand-cut colored paper. After moving to Sarasota, Florida, Marano shifted her artistic focus away from depicting scenes of Coney Island toward circus thrill shows. She recently became a member of Arts Advocates, an organization aiming to preserve the work of Florida artists. She will be exhibiting a solo show in their gallery in August 2024.

C Bangs, MFA Fine Arts ’75, exhibited her paintings with holographic panels, sculptures with retro reflective panels, and holograms at the Intrepid Museum in New York City. The exhibition, Postcards from Earth: Holograms on an Interstellar Journey, included work by Cornell University’s Aerospace Engineering Space Systems Design Group. Bangs’s holograms represent a projected space mission expected to launch in 2024 through Cornell University, Alpha CubeSat, a solar-powered satellite aiming to reduce the costs of space travel.

Mary Campbell, BFA Communications Design ’78, curated Dada in the House: 20 years of Performance Art on Staten Island at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor

Cultural Center on Staten Island. The exhibition, which was on view from October 14 to December 31, showcased the history of the Day de Dada Performance Art Collective, a performance ensemble that Campbell has served as codirector of since 2002. The show includes props, costumes, and videos of performances by the collective.

Mary Ann Michna, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’78, has been working on a series of black-and-white acrylic paintings inspired by found vintage black-and-white snapshot photographs. In the past two years, four of

her paintings from this series have been exhibited in biennial shows at the Cedarhurst Art Center, the Sheldon Swope Art Museum, and the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center. She currently works from her studio in New Harmony, Indiana.

Meryl Taradash, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’78, created an eight-foothigh stainless steel sculpture with kinetic aluminum forms that has been permanently installed in the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation’s new arboretum, the LaCross Botanical Garden. The sculpture was installed with assistance from Harry Gordon, a former professor of metalwork at Pratt whose work is featured in the Pratt Institute Sculpture Park.

Mary Rieser Heintjes, BFA Fine Arts ’79; MFA Fine Arts ’85, displayed her sculptures as part of a group show last August at Carter Burden Gallery. The exhibition, Nowhere, Now Here, also included the work of the artists Darla Bjork and Robert Petrick, connecting the three artists by their use of abstraction and color. Heintjes’s sculptures utilized oxyacetylene welding, incorporating reflections on science and nature.

1980s

Laura J. Padgett, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’80, recently had her work exhibited in the solo show Regenerating Permanence, which featured a photo-artistic series on the architecture of Frankfurt’s Westend Syna-

Clockwise from top center : Mary Campbell ’78. Mary Ann Michna ’78, Mary Ann in Hegewisch , 2022, 24 x 36 inches. Lisa Lyman Adams ’73, The Invitation , acrylic on wood canvas, 20 x 16 inches

Kay WalkingStick, MFA Fine Arts ’75, was highlighted in the exhibition Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School at the NewYork Historical Society. Placed in conversation with the Society’s collection of 19th-century Hudson River School paintings, WalkingStick’s landscapes are the first ever acquired by the institution. Filling three rooms at the Historical Society, highlights of the exhibition’s more than 40 works included recent paintings by WalkingStick, including Niagara and Aquidneck After the Storm, early nature-inspired painted sculptural abstractions, and two pieces directly inspired by Hudson River School artists. The New York Times covered the exhibition, which was on view until early April 2024, in a profile on the artist and the evolution of her work. Kathleen Ash-Milby, a curator interviewed for the profile who co-organized a retrospective of WalkingStick’s work, noted that “Kay is really an icon in the field and recognized as someone important among Native American contemporary artists since the ’80s.” The 2016 Pratt Commencement keynote speaker and the recipient of an honorary degree from Pratt, WalkingStick was also recently honored at Pratt’s Legends 2023. Her work, spanning a career of more than six decades, has been acquired by over a dozen museum collections, including MoMA, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney. and enjoys a life of private teaching, writing, painting, and traveling with the poet Lee Pennington.

gogue. The show opened on November 2, 2023, at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, and included an artist talk with Padgett, who lives in Frankfurt. The show marks the occasion of Jewish Community of Frankfurt’s reestablishment 75 years ago, and takes place as part of Frankfurt’s Jewish Cultural Weeks celebration.

Jill Withrow Baker, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’81, studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy, in 1975. She took graduate courses at Columbia in New York and at Florida State University in Tallahassee under Karl Zerbe. She taught at several universities, lastly at the University of Southern Indiana. After having exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, and the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, she has shown in most major cities in the US. She has settled in Louisville

Matt Magee, MFA Fine Arts (New Forms) ’83, had new and recent works on display in his new solo exhibition, Cutouts and Cut-offs. The show featured Magee’s interpretations of found materials into geometric sculptures, collages, and paintings, and ran from November 11 to February 17 at The Mission Projects, a residential exhibition space in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Bill Stamats, BFA Fine Arts ’83, founded Stamats Art Appraisals, a new business, in 2023. As a member of the International Society of Appraisers, Stamats conducts appraisals for a broad range of personal property while specializing in valuing fine art paintings, prints, and sculptures. Most appraisals are for

The 1977 journal of Greer Lankton, BFA Fine Arts ’81, was published by Primary Information. It is one of the earliest of Lankton’s sketchbooks from the artist’s archives housed in MoMA’s Department of Film collection. Composed of drawings, behavioral diagrams, and occasionally confessional writing, Sketchbook, September 1977 offers insight into the period leading up to her medical gender transition in 1979 and what would become a prolific career in dollmaking, photography, illustration, and painting. With an afterword by lifelong friend Joyce Randall Senechal, these pages record then 19-yearold Lankton’s musings as she reflected on “critical questions of selfimage, social perception, gender normativity, and human behavior.” Following her move to New York, Lankton became prominent in the East Village art scene, presenting her work in Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing at Artists Space, and the 1995 Whitney Biennial and Venice Biennale. Lankton’s final , completed prior to her passing in November 1996, is on permanent display at Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory. The remainder of her journals, both the original copies and the transcriptions created by Joyce Randall Senechal, remain housed at MoMA.

charitable contributions, insurance coverage and claims, and equitable distribution. All of Stamats’s appraisals conform to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, IRS guidelines, and the

International Society of Appraisers report-writing protocols. Stamats Art Appraisals serves the legal community, banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, and individuals.

Andrew Bass Jr., BFA Communications Design ’85, self-published Sketch & Learn, a dot-grid sketchbook, in the summer of 2023. The publication contains 20 insightful tips about being a graphic designer

Greer Lankton ’75, from Sketchbook, September 1977. Courtesy of Primary Information

or creative—on fueling creativity, navigating the business side of creation, general how-tos, and basic information to know from a seasoned designer about thinking through ideas. More information about the book and Bass’s work can be found at andrewbassdesign.com or on Instagram (@andrewbassdesign).

Steve Gimson, BFA Communications Design (Advertising/Art Direction) ’86, is currently living in North Central Pennsylvania, and would love to hear from any members of his graduating class who might be interested in socializing by email or phone. During his time as a student, Gimson lived on the 11th floor of Willoughby Hall. He encourages people to reach out to him via email at stevegimson@ comcast.net.

Andrew Reach, BArch ’86, had artwork featured in two exhibitions between November and December 2023. He was included in Tangents, an exhibition of nine abstract and geometric artists from Northeast

Ohio at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland; and the Ohio Arts Council 2023 Juried Biennial Exhibition at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus. At both exhibitions, Reach showed his work 3D Derivatives, connecting his architectural background with his digital media art practice. In this process, the artist creates 3D structures, isolates compelling views, and renders them as prints on acrylic mounted to composite aluminum and cut out to their geometric shapes.

Robert Talarczyk, MS Communications Design ’86, was prominently featured in the 378th issue of Graphis Journal, in a 20-page story covering his professional design career. The piece covers the scope of his creative career, from his time as the art director for Bozell and Jacobs to his current tenure as the founder, CEO, and executive creative director of Darkhorse Design.

Anthony Iovino, AIA, BArch ’88, is a founding partner in Arcari + Iovino Architects. The firm recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Its Japan Solderless Technology (JST) Harrisburg Production Engineering Center project was published in AIA’s Architect magazine and received AIA-NJ and AIA Tri-State design awards. The project was developed and documented in conjunction with design architect Ryuchi Ashizawa Architects located in Osaka, Japan, where the JST home office is located.

1990s

Janet Birckhead, MSLIS ’90, adult services librarian of 31 years at New Jersey’s Long Branch Free Public Library, was honored, alongside Library Director Tonya Garcia, with a National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. First Lady Jill Biden presented the award to Long Branch Free Public Library, one of four winners nationwide, on July 17. The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries that demonstrate excellence in service to their communities.

Charles Prettyman, BArch ’92, was recently named president of the New York Architects Regatta Foundation. The foundation annually hosts the New York Architects’ Regatta Challenge, a fundraiser in which a boat race is held during the early fall season. The foundation’s website describes how the challenge “enables New York Architecture and Design practitioners to support the efforts of charitable enterprises focused on providing waterfront access and educational experiences to a wider audience of various socioeconomic backgrounds.”

Peter Wachtel, MID ’92, was featured on the podcast Fueling Creativity in Education, where he discussed his journey into product design and his approach to fostering curiosity

and exploration in education. With a diverse background in the toy and entertainment industry, he currently teaches at Adolfo Camarillo High School in California.

Jean Shin, BFA Fine Arts ’94; MS ’96, Adjunct Professor (CCE) of Fine Arts, was commissioned to create a permanent work for the lobby of the newly opened Perelman Performing Arts Center, located on the World Trade Center site. Her piece, Water’s Echo, is a reimagining of the New York waterways made from thousands of hand-sewn mother-of-pearl shell buttons. By installing this public work at PAC NYC, the artist notes that she is “returning the beautiful remains of endangered and threatened species to a shoreline where marine life once thrived.”

Bernard “Bernie” Langs, MSLIS ’95, is editing his first documentary film on the life and art of 87-year-old printmaker and painter Ann Chernow, “the Queen of Noir.” The 25-minute film includes interviews with Ann Chernow as well as award-winning biographer Ron Chernow and film and stage actor Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) and his wife, actress Mia Dillon (A Christmas Carol). The film was screened in November 2023 in the tristate area at libraries and other free venues. Langs is also filming a one-hour movie in Manhattan with a cast of vocalists and dancers performing his original rock opera Trilogy, which is based on his own stories and those of James Joyce and Ovid. He

would like to encourage any potential collaborators to be in touch with him via email: bernardlangs@yahoo.com.

Cesar Santalo, BFA Fine Arts (Drawing) ’95, chair of the Pratt Miami alumni network, attended the Latin Grammys in Sevilla, Spain. He created a mural for the documentary Patria y vida: the Power of Music that was featured prominently throughout the film. The documentary was nominated for Best Video Long Version, a new category at the Latin Grammys. Regarding his mural, which is on display at Florida International University in the College of Law, Santalo notes that he owes his “collage technique to my years at Pratt, where I started my first painting in this style.” In December 2023, Santalo debuted a new collage mural in front of PAMM, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, during Art Basel Miami Beach.

Heidi Neilson, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’97, was recognized with a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship

SFORZA

in Digital/Electronic Arts. A board member of Wave Farm and a teacher at Parsons, Neilson has also been awarded artist residencies at the NYC Urban Field Station, SPACES, Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, and elsewhere.

2000s

Valeen Bhat, BFA Art and Design Education ’04; MS Art and Design Education ’05, just celebrated the eighth anniversary of her brick-and-mortar art studio in Park Slope. She shared that she is “excited for this milestone, especially through COVID, and looking forward to the next eight years.”

Monica Maccaux, BFA Communications Design ’04, launched the type foundry Ampersand Type, with recent releases including String Theory and Sforza. “Having my own type foundry has been a goal since grad school (class of 2013) and was finally realized this fall,” Maccaux writes. The foundry website is ampersandtype.com

Hye Ju Park, MS Interior Design ’04, was a designer at the New York-based architectural firm Perkins and Will before leaving to start her own design furniture company, GU Vintage Shop (GUVS). In 2020, she designed and constructed the GUVS building in Heyri Art Village, South Korea, along with fellow Pratt alum Kyungmin Kim, MS Interior Design ’04. Park recently published an essay book on her love of vintage furniture, 뉴욕에서 빈티지 마켓을 시작했습니다 (I Opened a Vintage Furniture Market in New York).

Clockwise from top center : Cesar Santalo ’95, detail of Patria y vida, the Power of Music-73 Portrait of Yotuel . Monica Maccaux ’04, typefaces by Ampersand Type. Jean Shin ’94; ’96 installing Water’s Echo , on permanent display in the lobby at Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site in New York City.

of Bloomberg

Milanese inspired

Photo courtesy

Pratt Trustee Derrick Adams, BFA Art and Design Education ’96, designed an installation displayed on the National Mall as part of Beyond Granite: Pulling Together. His work America’s Playground: DC features a monumental, fully operational playground right in the District’s Constitution Gardens-East. Notably, the playground includes an illustration based on an archival photograph from the DC Public Library that was taken just days after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling Bolling v. Sharpe declared the segregation of DC’s schools and playgrounds unconstitutional. While Adams notes that play in this space is paramount, America’s Playground: DC reflects the story of desegregation, ultimately “[transforming] the playground into a site of contemplation [and] remembrance.” With work spanning the mediums of painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound, Adams is a recipient of the Rauschenberg Foundation Residency and Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship. His work has been featured at MoMA PS1, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Art and Design, as well as in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. ( beyondgranite.org)

She also runs the Contemporary Furniture Design Competition, an event hosted by GUVS in its third year, promoting contemporary designers working in South Korea.

Brad Ascalon, MID ’05, had his Kithara lounge collection for Kimball International/David Edward nominated for an Interior Design Best of Year award. Nominated within the category of contract seating, Kithara includes lounge seating and coordinating occasional tables, benches,

Rendering by Monument Lab

and ottomans that emphasize enduring aesthetics and craftsmanship. Ascalon also worked with Kimball International on their documentary series Alternative Conversations, featuring influential makers, designers, and innovators. The series premiered on Sandow Media’s DesignTV in November 2023. (designer’s newsletter)

Laurel Dewitt, BFA Fashion Design ’05, had her designs worn by the rapper Lil’ Kim on the cover of Ebony Magazine. Lil’ Kim was styled with Dewitt’s crown and handpieces for the publication’s Fall 2023 “50 Years of Hip-Hop” commemorative print edition. (@laureldewitt)

Jonathan Gibson, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’06, launched the project LivingHistory.AI, which creates custom immersive history experiences that enable users to meet historical figures and ancestors, have lifelike conversations with them, and explore their world and artifacts. Visit LivingHistory.AI to learn more about the project.

Felene Cayetano, MSLIS ’07, was a featured poet within BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival in September 2023, in Leeds. Along with a lineup of local (UK) and international poets, Cayetano read poems about Belizean identity, Garifuna culture, place, love, and nature in three festival events. She is the first Belizean poet to be invited to the festival since it started in 2017.

Nick Higgins, MSLIS ’08, chief librarian at Brooklyn Public Library, was featured in TIME’s 100 Next List for

his work around the library’s Books Unbanned program. In light of rising book-ban challenges and the removal of titles from library shelves across the country, the program allows for young people to browse its digital collections, regardless of where they live in the US, for free. (TIME)

2010s

Donni Davy, BFA Photography ’10, was interviewed by The Cut about her favorite products, skincare routines, and takes on all things beauty. The creator of makeup looks for the HBO series Euphoria, Davy talked about how receiving her BFA in photography from Pratt propelled her into her career as a film and TV makeup artist—“the perfect mélange of all of her passions.” (The Cut)

Polly Shindler, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’11, had her first solo booth at New Art Dealers Association (NADA) Art Fair in Miami with Deanna Evans Projects NYC, showing her latest paintings. The artist also attended a monthlong residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York, in February, and recently published her first coloring book, Owen’s Big Day at Troutbeck. (artist’s newsletter)

Molly Adams, BFA Critical and Visual Students ’12, recently released the book Birding for a Better World, coauthored with Sydney Golden Anderson. The book was published by the Feminist Bird Club, a collective Adams founded that aims to unite people’s “passion for birds and their passion for social justice into a cohesive whole.” The book was featured in Associated Press’s gift guide for the best coffee table reads of 2023, which described it as a “helpful primer on birding for all.” (Associated Press)

Ruth Mora, MFA Fine Arts ’13, recently published a new book and took part in an exhibition. The book, Borders and Bonds: Art as a Mediator, published by SUMO Project, explores “the contributions of art in the public realm and communal engagement, as a tool to build trust, capacity, and enhance social cohesion and bonding to effectively respond to current urban challenges.” The exhibition, Roots, which opened at Open Studio’s Project Space, “is a body of work that delves into material-driven

processes and alternative material expressions, engaging in a dialogue between screen printing and weaving, centered on the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, embracing life’s transient and imperfect nature.”

Mahogany L. Browne, MFA Writing ’16, the first poet in residence at Lincoln Center, was included in The New York Times article “How Cave Canem Has Nurtured Generations of Black Poets.” Brown described her time at the Cave Canem poets’ fellowship: “Have you ever felt the spirit move through the room and sit next to you in your chair? That’s what fellowship within Cave Canem’s home feels like.” (The New York Times)

Jonell Joshua, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’18, assistant to the chair of art and design education, is a freelance illustrator releasing her debut illustrated memoir, How Do I Draw These Memories?, in spring 2024. Published by Levine Querido, the book explores Joshua’s upbringing between Savannah and New Jersey, and how her family persevered in times of crisis.

Yongmin Lee, MS Urban Design ’18, recently published New York, City of Memory with the South Korean art book publisher Samtoh Publishers. The book features locations and spaces across New York City, highlighting the multiple styles of architecture that make way for unique lifestyles throughout the city’s history.

Mary Lempres, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’18; MID ’23, recently received a winning entry nod for her project Reef Rocket in the Global Design Graduate Show 2023 in collaboration with GUCCI. The project “seeks to decarbonize cement production by employing nature in the manufacturing process while engaging communities most impacted by rising sea levels in fabricating and restoring natural reefs that reduce coastal flooding, promote biodiversity, and filter water.” (Arts Thread)

Jenson Leonard, MFA Writing ’19, recently had his piece Workflow on exhibition at Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh. The show, which ran from September 22 to February 11, explores “the velocity and momentum of Blackness as it relates to the philosophical concept of acceleration.” The work was originally developed and exhibited at Pioneer Works, in Leonard’s first institutional solo exhibition. (Document Journal)

Molly Adams ’12, cover of Birding for a Better World

Hoda Ramy ’21, still from the music video for säje’s “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” courtesy of the artist

Nicole Rifkin, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’14, illustrated the cover of the October 9, 2023, issue of The New Yorker, which includes a cameo of a tote bag designed by Alexander Heir, BFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’06. In an interview on the occasion of the cover, Rifkin, who spent a decade in Brooklyn, reflects on city life, culture, and a new sense of community upon recently relocating to upstate New York.

“I bet you there are thousands of people on the subway every day who are going home or to the studio to create something that might change your life for the better,” she said of the subway-themed cover. More recently, Rifkin also made her directorial debut with the music video for “The Birds

Attacked My Hot-Air Balloon” by Pile, which she refers to as a “huge creative leap”: “It’s good to push yourself to do something different, and I always adore working collaboratively; it’s freeing.” (The New Yorker)

2020s

Samuel Herrera, MFA Photography ’20, had a solo photography exhibition, Standing in A Golden Field, at the Pratt Institute Photography Gallery from October 30 through November 17, 2023. (artist’s newsletter)

Hoda Ramy, MFA Digital Arts ’21, animated and directed the music video for vocal quartet säje’s rendition of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

Charlotte Böhning, MID ’23, was selected as the national winner of the US James Dyson Award for her project Gutsy port, a secure custom-fit port for people who have undergone an ostomy that can be worn over the stoma and provides the ability to regulate waste flow for extended periods. After wearing an ostomy bag herself, Böhning experienced the limitations of the existing design firsthand. She facilitated extensive interviews with ostomates around the world, from Wales to Scotland, and conducted ethnographic research, ephemera collection, immersive bodystorming, and interactive prototyping. Böhning’s partnership with Dr. Alessio Pagazzi, the chief of colorectal surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical Center, helped her conceptualize ostomy products as personalized prosthetics rather than accessories. “I would visit the hospital with my prototypes, and Dr. Pagazzi would pore over them giving his expertise,” Böhning noted in an interview with Dyson about her project. “It was through that relationship that I realized the Gutsy port could have a global impact in people’s lives. . . . My mission as a designer is to improve the lives of people and to help the planet in the process.” The Gutsy was also a top 20 finalist in the international stage of the James Dyson Award. (dyson.com)

Forbes premiered the video in November, calling it a “beautiful, trippy, animated video for [säje’s] sublime version” of the song, nominated for a Grammy for best arrangement, instrument and vocals. In an interview with Forbes, säje member Sara Gazarek said finding Ramy was “a stroke of great luck,” noting that as an artist, “she’s always thinking of symbolism. . . . It’s that way with our music as well. So it just felt like a really good unification because the value systems are the same.” (Forbes)

Carol Choi, MSLIS ’23; Jessika Davis, MSMDC ’23; Ava Kaplan, MSLIS ’23; and Lubov McKone, MSLIS ’23, presented “Making the Desert Island Discs Dataset: Data Visceralization and How We Don’t Know What We

Carol Choi ’23, Jessika Davis ’23, Ava Kaplan ’23, Lubov McKone ’23, from “Making the Desert Island Discs Dataset: Data Visceralization and How We Don’t Know What We Know,” base photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash, courtesy of Pratt Institute School of Information

Charlotte Böhning ’23 with the Gutsy port. Photo courtesy of the James Dyson Award

Know” at the Digital Library Federation (DLF) 2023 Forum, which took place from November 12 to 16 in St. Louis, Missouri. (School of Information newsletter)

Jamie Oh, MPS Arts and Cultural Management ’23, recently had her work exhibited as a member of the Wellcome Collective, a newly launched arts collective based in New York City and Seoul. The collective’s debut art exhibition, Sarang: Conversation on Love, showed in Koreatown in November 2023. Oh describes the exhibition as a “celebration of the Korean community in New York as well as an exchange of arts and culture.”

Malek Rasmussen, BFA Fashion Design ’24, designer of MalekR., won the 2023 Omaha Fashion Week Featured Designer Golden Shears award, the grand prize from the nation’s fourth largest fashion week. Rasmussen’s winning collection showcased 15 of his Pratt junior thesis looks in the competition, which featured 40 professional independent designers.

Group Highlights

Aerosyn-Lex Mestrovic, BFA Communications Design ’04, and Maria de Los Angeles, BFA Fine Arts ’13, were highlighted by Harpers Bazaar as Latinx artists reshaping New York City’s art scene. The feature included reflections from the artists on their relationships to art, representation, and community. Recent career milestones mentioned include the purchase of de Los Angeles’s Citizen Dress by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas for its permanent collection, and the addition of Mestrovic’s artwork to the Samsung Art Store, a digital art application for Samsung devices. (Harpers Bazaar)

featured in the film Interiors (1978) as an inspiration. Daye, who works as a hospitality designer, described the influence the apartment from Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986) had on her. “A year after I saw the movie, I arrived in New York,” shared Daye. “In 2003, I finally found a place in Fort Greene and I’m still here.” (The New York Times Style Magazine)

annual iteration of the list featured 27 artists, all of whom are under the age of 35. Cultured called the artists a “testament to the resourcefulness and optimism required to choose not only the work, but also the life of an artist.” (Cultured)

Pratt alumni, we want to know what you’re up to, and so do your fellow graduates. Send your work and life updates to classnotes@pratt.edu. Notes may be up to 100 words in length. Please include your full name, degree or program, and graduation year. Submissions will be edited for length, clarity, and style. Image submissions should be high resolution (300 dpi at 5 x 7 inches). Lizzy Lunday, Various Sirens , 2023, oil and acrylic on canvas, 64 x 80 inches; image courtesy of Fredericks & Freiser, New York

Loren Daye, MID ’06, and William (Billy) Cotton, BID ’07, were interviewed for The New York Times Style Magazine about the onscreen apartments that inspired them to move to the city and informed their aesthetics as interior designers. Cotton, a multidisciplinary designer who serves as the creative director of Billy Cotton Studio, cited the apartment

Anthony Cudahy, BFA Fine Arts ’11, and Lizzy Lunday, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19, were spotlighted in NYLON’s 10 Painters to Watch feature in the magazine’s 2023 Art Issue. Lunday’s solo show Head in the Clouds was on view at Fredericks & Freiser last fall, receiving a nod from New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix,” and Cudahy’s exhibition Anthony Cudahy: Spinneret, the artist’s first US solo show, is up at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art from April 12 to July 21. Visiting Instructor of Foundation Vanessa Gully Santiago was also included in the roundup of rising “talented and thrilling artists . . . pushing the boundaries in the ever-evolving medium of painting.” (NYLON)

Theresa Chromati, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’14; Emma Stern, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’14; and Isabelle Brourman, MFA Painting and Drawing ’19, were named three of Cultured’s up-and-coming names to watch, in the magazine’s 2023 Young Artists List. The eighth

Karen Li-Lun Hwang, MSLIS ’16; Ava Kaplan, MSLIS ’23; and Jessika Davis, MSMDC ’23, members of the School of Information’s Semantic Lab, gave a presentation, “Semantic Lab Projects on Wikibase,” at Wikidata Day 2023 at Butler Library at Columbia University in October. Alex Provo, MSLIS ’15, visiting assistant professor in Pratt’s School of Information, gave a lightning talk on SPARQL workshops at NYU Libraries, part of her research work on linked data pedagogy. (School of Information newsletter)

In Memoriam

Alumni

Olelia Nori Blanchard Certificate, Costume Design ’41

Daniel H. Ferrari Mechanical Engineering (1943)

Maria V. Pappas BS Home Economics ’45

Winifred O’Dougherty Certificate, Advertising Design ’48

Ira Bernstein Certificate, Industrial Design ’50

John A. Lopez BECE ’50

Clair A. Samhammer Certificate, Industrial Design ’50

George Tscherny Advertising Design (1947–1950)

Richard L. St. Vincent Advertising Design (1951–1952)

Harold Cheney Jr. Illustration (1951–1953)

Bruce M. Newman BFA Interior Design ’53, Trustee Emeritus

Caroline Nuytkens Certificate ’51; BFA Interior Design ’53

Nancy Purcell Scholhamer Advertising Design (1951–1953)

Frank Angelucci Jr. BA Art and Design Education ’55

Radoslav L. Sutnar BArch ’55; MArch ’56

Walter Frederick Cerny AAS Advertising Art ’59

Phillip J. Ratner BFA Communications Design ’59

Ira Michael Roshberg Architecture (1958–1959)

Frank Vero Advertising Art (1955–1959)

Ralph Case

BFA Communications Design (Advertising Design) ’60

Diane Laviolette Fashion Design (1959–1961)

John O’Donnell Mechanical Technology (1958–1961)

Myra Silver MLS ’61

Dakin W. Morehouse BID ’62

Virginia de Ronde Becher MLS ’64

Angelo B. “Bill” Proto BS Food Science and Management ’64

Raymond Waites Art Education (1965)

Alan Daninhirsch BArch ’66

Aviva Gold MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’66; MPS Art Therapy and Creativity Development ’80

Judith McGowan MLS ’66

Randie Wasserman BFA Graphic Arts ’68

Karl A. Vermandois Graduate Fine Arts (1967–1969)

Sherry Lauraine (Dolson) Long MLS ’71

Marian Grebski AAS Environmental Interior Design ’73

Patricia Feeney Murrell MFA Fine Arts ’73

Stephen Timothy Riley BFA Fine Arts ’73

Pratt Institute remembers those we have recently lost, through early February 2024.

William Pope.L Foundation (1973–1974)

John R. Crellin BArch ’75

Susan Turconi MFA ’76

David Matthewson MSLIS ’80

Alan C. Frick BID ’85

Jeffrey G. Heffner Architecture (1986)

Jilleen Nadolny BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’87

Ann Renee deVere BArch ’88

Mark E. Morrissey BFA Graphic Design ’88

Lisa Hunt Communications Design (Graphic Design, 1987–1991)

Mego M. Saienni BFA Fine Arts (Drawing) ’12

Andrew T. Ward MSLIS ’16

Faculty and Staff

Sandra Hetzel Assistant to the Chair, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment

Ross McLaren Former faculty member of Film/Video

Ed T. Young, class of 1959

Former faculty member in the School of Art and Design pratt.edu/those-we-have-lost

The Apex Is Nothing

Leslie Roberts, WHAT’S THAT, 2021. Acrylic gouache, pencil, ink on panel, 14 x 11 inches

Courtesy of the artist

“Designing

Is All About Relationships”

The Rowena Reed Kostellow Archive Chronicles a Half-Century of Shaping Industrial Design

As a leading educator and designer from the 1930s to 1980s, Rowena Reed Kostellow shaped the global study and practice of industrial design during her more than five decades at Pratt Institute. A new online resource led by a group of alumni, students, and faculty and the School of Design brings together ephemera, photographs, objects, and stories of the influential designer and educator.

Kostellow’s career was dedicated to promoting thoughtful design for daily life, and with her husband, Alexander Kostellow, and Donald Dohner, she established Pratt’s Industrial Design program and its foundation curriculum with an attention to form, function, and industry. The program inspired industrial design courses around the globe.

The newly launched Rowena Reed Kostellow Digital Archive honors that legacy in its collection of archival material from Pratt Librar-

ies and submissions from alumni.

It is a publicly accessible resource for students studying industrial design as well as anyone interested in Kostellow’s influence on 20th-century design. Its advisory group of former Pratt students, some of whom studied under Kostellow, included Adjunct Associate Professor of Industrial Design

Linda Celentano, BID ’80; Tarik Currimbhoy, BID ’79 and Master of Architecture ’88; Meghan Day, MID ’23; Adjunct Professor (CCE) of Industrial Design Kate Hixon, BID ’81; and Rose Moon, BID ’23.

The Rowena Reed Kostellow Digital Archive was made possible by the generous support of Lisa Smith, BID ’77.

“Whether a student has raw talent or is trainable, being willing is all it takes to understand Rowena Reed Kostellow’s principles and make the world, ultimately, a more beautiful place,” Celentano said.

“Working on the archive has once again revealed to me that there is more to come in terms of understanding this pedagogy. Being part of this has yet again shown me how rewarding it is to be a professor and industrial designer from Pratt. Like life itself, I’ve been taught by her that designing is all about relationships in the most personal way.”

The archive is organized into sections that each illuminate a different part of Kostellow’s teaching and impact, such as “Rowena’s Curriculum,” which highlights how she taught foundation-level and advanced studies classes with an emphasis on hands-on work with forms. The “At Pratt” area includes materials from student projects that applied this understanding of forms, with both recent student work and pieces from alumni.

“Remarkably, Rowena Reed Kostellow’s essential exercises in form

and space continue to influence and serve as a reference for the methods by which students, then alumni, trained in industrial design at Pratt designed, design, and will design as they move through their professional lives,” School of Design Dean Anita Cooney said. “Her legacy is active and renewed as each and every new student begins their study with us.”

Adapted from the article “Rowena Reed Kostellow Archive Chronicles a Half-Century of Shaping Industrial Design” on pratt.edu/news.

Visit the Rowena Reed Kostellow Archive at pratt.edu/design/rowena -reed-kostellow-digital-archive

Rowena Reed Kostellow teaching in Pratt Industrial Design Studios, from Prattonia 1965.

Photo by Leonard Soned, BFA Advertising Design ’66. Image courtesy of Philip Kropf, BID ’65

Dreams are real. Not everyone gets the opportunity to do the thing they were dreaming, and I just think if you have an opportunity or a chance to keep a dream alive for someone, do it.”

Give now and keep the dream alive for the next generation of Pratt students.

A gift to Pratt fuels the work of our students. Your generosity can ensure our students receive an experience that promotes their creative and academic success, access to world-class faculty, and an environment that is unique and cross-disciplinary.

Jason Raymond, BFA Digital Arts ‘25

Electronic Service Requested

About the cover

Jamaal Peterman, MFA Fine Arts ’19 Train Up, 2021 Oil, vinyl glitter, sand on canvas 48 x 60 inches

“I wanted to learn from the best to become the kind of person creatives can rely on for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding,” says Jamaal Peterman, MFA Fine Arts ’19,an alumnus of Pratt>Forward, an artist-mentorship program founded by Pratt Institute Fine Arts Chair Jane South and alumna Mickalene Thomas, BFA Fine Arts ’00. Peterman, whose work is featured on our Spring 2024 cover, is among the accomplished Pratt graduates Prattfolio spoke to for this issue’s special section on mentorship. Read more on page 20.