A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
Chen Chen, BID ’07, and Kai Williams, BID ’06, are presenting “Blue Heron Triangle” in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to provide a fishing platform for its great blue herons. The work is part of For the Birds, a garden-wide exhibition of artist-designed birdhouses. Their work was highlighted in coverage from the Daily Beast, Dezeen, and Elle Decor.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Andrew Woolbright wrote an article for the Brooklyn Rail about alternative site curation and the inaugural exhibition of The Campus. “Where and how and when, if ever, does art have the mandate to intervene?” asks Woolbright. “What gives presence, and what denies it? When do we mean when we reference the ‘public’?”
Studio S II, co-founded by Jeremy Silberberg, MFA Interior Design ’19, and Erica Sellers, was featured in The New York Times for the renovation of a townhouse in Ridgewood, Queens. “We like having a strong point of view,” Silberberg told the Times. “We wanted to combine something futuristic or machine-like with the corporeal.” Studio S II was also featured in StirWorld.
Work by Rotimi Fani-Kayode, who attended Pratt from 1980 to 1982, was featured in Essence, The Guardian, The New York Times (twice), Hypebeast, Columbus Underground, attitude, and Dazed.
Assistant Professor of Film/Video Christopher Radcliff’s film We Were the Scenery will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. “Making this film has truly been a journey, taking us to Vietnam, the Philippines, and California, and through the creation of poetry, prose, and a multichannel installation companion piece in search of a way to center Vietnamese perspectives, and a story, otherwise excluded from our imagination and iconography of the Vietnam War.”
Adjunct Professor – CCE of Interior Design Alex Schweder is included in an article on the “12 museums just outside NYC perfect for a day trip.” His installation “ReActor” at Art Omi, made in collaboration with Ward Shelley, is a “44-foot by 8-foot ‘habitable sculpture’ that sits atop a 15-foot concrete column and rotates 360-degrees. Schweder and Shelley live in the sculpture periodically, which moves in response to its inhabitants’ movements, exterior forces, and interior conditions, according to Art Omi.”
Vincent Celano, BArch ’93, was featured in Forbes. “The experienced entrepreneur, designer and traveler continues to emphasize elements of authenticity and sustainability by implementing personalized approaches, thoughtful conceptualization and collaboration with local artists and makers.”
Pratt alumna Pamela Colman Smith was recognized in The Times and Hyperallergic for illustrating the enduringly popular and influential 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck.
Director of Information Services and Cultural Insight at Scholastic Deimosa Webber-Bey, MSLIS ’13, was quoted in an article about reading with children. “Here at Scholastic, we know that children’s books have superpowers, and this new research demonstrates just how invaluable books are for supporting communication with children from birth through adolescence to graduation and beyond,” she said. “Books can provide comfort, a portal to faraway places, an introduction to new concepts and a helping hand when broaching tough topics. With this new compilation of research, our hope is that families will feel empowered to incorporate books into all aspects of their parenting efforts, and that books can serve parents in building an everlasting bond with their child.”
BK Reader reports that “slow and unreliable bus service along Flatbush Avenue is affecting commuters’ jobs, finances and well-being, according to a new survey by Riders Alliance and the Pratt Center for Community Development.”
