The Daily Hub

Philip Parker, adjunct associate professor – CCE of Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD), and John Shapiro, professor in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, discuss the complexity of installing seawalls for climate resilience in an article for the Commercial Observer, as well as emerging designs that better accommodate environmental and social conditions. “What we’re designing is not a wall but a system: a way in which we can actually use advanced computation to make variations in the edge and implement those in different places,” Parker said.

Matte, a photography magazine founded by Matthew Leifheit, adjunct associate professor of photography, has published its most ambitious issue yet, featuring a 480-page survey of 80 American photographers. AnOther samples the issue and speaks with Leifheit. “The magazine is about where American photography is today, and how these artists are building on the history of American photography,” he said.

Karina Sharif, BFA Fashion Design ’08, discusses her latest projects, approach to art, and her residency with the Brooklyn-based WORTHLESSSTUDIOS for a profile in Vice’s i-D magazine. “I think there’s a lot of joy in my work,” she said. “And there’s also this sadness as well, if you look deeper into some of the meanings.”

Chair of Fine Arts Jane South is interviewed on the latest episode of The Art Career podcast hosted by Emily McElwreath. South discusses her journey as an artist, the importance of touchstones like The Artist’s Way, and the upcoming Pratt>Forward 2024 program for emerging artists.

Jonathan A. Scelsa, associate professor of undergraduate architecture, and Gregory Sheward, visiting assistant professor in the School of Architecture, were part of a team that won the Best Project Award for their project “Centripetal Clay Printing: Six Axis Prints for a Habitat Column” from the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). The award “recognizes the substantial achievement of an accepted project, offering a significant contribution to architectural production through engagement with computational technologies in design and building.”

Miray Celikkol, BArch ’25, discusses her education, career aspirations, and the origins of Femmes of the Future, a student-led platform advocating for women in design, with Madame Architect. “Every initiative, every program we introduce, brings us closer to a world where women are not just part of the conversation in design but are leading it,” she said. 

Isabelle Brourman, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19, is profiled in The New York Times for her ongoing and highly expressive courtroom sketch series. Brourman is currently sketching the New York civil fraud trial of former U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

Cullen Washington Jr., visiting assistant professor of fine arts, was chosen as the inaugural Helen Frankenthaler Foundation residency recipient for the organization’s International Studio & Curatorial Program. The residency, which runs through May 31, explains that “Cullen Washington Jr.’s abstract paintings convey the feeling of the divine in nature through matter and light, which he calls TerraChroma.

Three Pratt faculty members—Francis Bradley, associate professor of social science and cultural studies; Nina Freedman, visiting associate professor of undergraduate architecture; and Roland Mikhail, visiting associate professor of fine arts—received 2024 New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) grants for different creative projects. NYSCA works to “foster and advance the full breadth of New York State’s arts, culture, and creativity for all.”

Sara Zielinski, MFA Sculpture and Integrated Practices ’23, received a 2024 New York State Council on the Arts grant award for her project “ABOLITIONIST BENCHES” with the arts organization Culture Push. Zielinski is creating a series of wooden benches around the sites of the Manhattan Detention Complex and the Brooklyn House of Detention for community members to sit and discuss the “effects of incarceration, jail demolition, and jail construction on their businesses and psyches.”