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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Pratt Institute was the lead in a WNYC radio spotlight and Gothamist feature article on the high demand for an arts education, with record-breaking enrollment at New York City schools, a surprising trend given recent headlines. “Especially when the world is so unstable and insecure, I think that art is a place of reflection, resistance and imagination,” Pratt Institute Fine Arts Chair Jane South said in the piece. Professor of Fine Arts Adrienne Elise Tarver added that students are “very interested in the material,” and Manar Balh, BFA ’26, was quoted saying, “A lot of my peers understand that nothing is guaranteed really, no matter what you study, so you should just study the thing that matters the most to you.” Coverage also appeared in The New York Times and The Art Newspaper

  • Hyperallergic covered the ongoing Process In Practice exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, which runs through Sept. 6 and features work by Pratt Communications Design alumni from both the graduate and undergraduate programs. “From branding and type design to social impact work and fine art, the alumni featured in Process in Practice span the breadth of design’s potential. Their practices cross disciplines and geographies, covering public art in New York, children’s book storytelling in Mexico, type innovation in Bangkok, sustainability in publishing and user experience, and beyond.”

  • Pratt Institute’s Communications and Marketing Creative Services team earned third place in Archinect’s Spring ’25 Get Lectured competition for their design of the School of Architecture’s spring 2025 event series poster.

  • Tomokazu Matsuyama, MFA Communications Design ’04, is profiled by Puck writer Marion Maneker, who visits Matsuyama’s studio in Greenpoint. “Matsu presented me with an articulate rationale for his syncretic work: Japanese anime-inspired figures inhabiting a world of riotous patterned wallpaper and clothing was an expression of his own sense of being a minority within a very different majority culture. His work is about representation, but within it, he imagines a sophisticated multicultural world where there are no set hierarchies.”

  • Pin-Up interviews Mark Grattan, BID ’06, in a wide-ranging conversation that explores his love of woodworking, his upcoming Layered collection for HBF Textiles, and his resistance to trends. “I’m not on trend. I’ve always stayed clear of a trend. Stacking and repetition give me comfort. In my eyes, it’s a beautiful thing to repeat a shape. The new collection has a lot of repeating shapes, like marquetry, which I’m working on a lot at the moment.”

More Pratt Institute News

A tabletop cluttered with various crafting supplies, including colorful yarn, buttons, fabric scraps, and scissors. Two hands are visible: one holding a decorated piece of fabric, while another points towards a sock-like item with a blue pattern. A wooden tool and small containers with pins and sequins are also present on a vibrant plaid tablecloth.

Repair. Rest. Repeat. 

Mending Circle, one of Pratt’s newest student clubs, sets aside time for care and community.

Designing Digital Interfaces for Real-World Clients

From Pratt Institute News

Graduate student Shreesa Shrestha, MSIXD ’26, is making the most of every opportunity at Pratt as she balances client projects, community-building initiatives, and a prestigious Product Design Fellowship at The Museum of Modern Art.

Open Studios, Endless Possibilities

From Pratt Institute News

Pratt’s annual MFA Open Studios were complemented by the first-ever Open Fields artist resource fair, making for an electric day of events celebrating artistic practice and the resources that sustain it.