A WELCOME FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JESSICA BORUSKY

Welcome to the Pratt Polka Dot Party!

For some, this is a time-honored tradition gone dormant for four years, and for others, this is our first time joining Pratt’s auction! At Pratt Fine Arts Center, we emphasize the importance of accessible creativity, learning, making, doing, expression, and community. This event is both a reunion for our community and a powerful gesture towards Pratt’s future; a celebration of Pratt’s past and present.

Our party is possible through the incredible work of auction Co-Chairs Nancy and Roger MacPherson and Susan Marabito- without their guidance and experience with Pratt and its supporters and artists, this event wouldn’t be the celebration that it is. This year’s auction is also the result of our amazing staff, teaching artists, students, and donating artists—without them the unbelievable artwork, energy, and talent would not be present tonight. Finally, our fantastic and fearless supporters and partnerships make this event—and all the work we do at Pratt Fine Arts Center—possible. I am excited to build upon that support to uplift and empower our organization into its next chapter.

I am honored to serve as Pratt Fine Art Center’s new Executive Director: learning about the immense and vibrant impact the organization has on so many lives; witnessing how Pratt’s classes and shared artistic spaces create transformational experiences; meeting people who began artmaking at Pratt as children and have grown up to become instructors and exhibiting artists; listening to our communities which forecast Pratt’s potential and identify how our organization can meet these needs.

Pratt is an intersection and a catalyst. Since I started at Pratt, I often ask myself how my role can allow people to find one another, their individual and collective power through art at these intersections. As a cultural organizer, educator, cocreator, and lifelong student, I aim to build bridges which connect the known and mysterious. Building bridges requires strong foundations, consensus, curiosity, and courage—let’s continue to build our foundations using the tools we know with imagination to see where we go next.

With gratitude, J