The Pratt Center for Community Development announced the 2021-22 Taconic Fellows. This year’s edition of the annual awards supports teams of Pratt faculty, staff, and students working on projects related to public health, from healthy food vending carts to reviving a neglected community garden. See all the fellows here.
The Daily Hub
A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
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Collector, writer, and producer Keli Goff, was featured in Town and Country. Pieces from her collection of vintage clothing by Black designers will be on view at Black Dress II: Homage, opening on February 7th at Pratt Manhattan Gallery. “What I’ve learned,” Goff said, “is that talking about this collection and these designers helps to keep their legacy alive.”
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Assistant Professor of Film/Video Christopher Radcliff’s film We Were the Scenery was awarded the short film jury award for Non-Fiction at Sundance 2025. The jury recognized the film for its “wholly unique, witty, joyful perspective on art-making, the impact of film, and how they intersect with real lives.”
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Fashion design alumni Paul Tazewell has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design for Wicked.
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New York City Commissioner of Culture Laurie Cumbo, who was a visiting assistant professor from fall 2001 to fall 2009 in the Arts and Cultural Management program at Pratt Institute, spoke about Broadway Week on Eyewitness News Mornings. Cumbo was also featured in Our Time Press. “Economically, cultural institutions are great drivers for the economy,” she said. “So if neighborhoods really want to thrive, it’s critical that they have a cultural institution there.”
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Zakariya Abdul-Qadir, MFA Fine Arts, Painting/Drawing ’25 is featured in the Art Newspaper about an exhibition at Haul Gallery. “The exhibition’s only painting, Zakariya Abdul-Qadir’s Bound by threaded dreams (2025), a rough-hewn portrait of a seated man, utilises unstable materials in a bid to render the work less desirable to acquire. The artist used non-archival paint applied to an unprimed support made from two canvases stitched together like the seam on a baseball; each element will hasten the work’s deterioration over time. The painting nonetheless sold during the opening (for $300), but its impermanence undermines its potential to be an asset whose value appreciates in perpetuity.”
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Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice Carlos Motta received a Ruth Award, which recognizes “extraordinary, critically engaged artists who approach their practices with continuous inquiry, imagination, and rigor.” The $100,000 award notes that “alongside videos and sculptures, the multidisciplinary artist produces social spaces for conversation that bring solace and knowledge to participants and audiences.”
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Cofounder and CEO of Acelab, Vardhan Mehta, BArch ’18, made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for transforming construction with AI.
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Associate Professor in the School of Information John Lauermann was invited to join the editorial board at the journal Urban Geography.
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¡LLÁMENME ROBERTO! (Call Me Roberto!), a nonfiction picture book illustrated by Professor of Undergraduate Communications Design Rudy Gutierrez, was named to the Bank Street Mejor Libro Infantil/Best Spanish Language Picture Book List 2025.