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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • The Research Yard led by Pratt was named the “Winner in Interior Design – Workplace / Office” by the BLT Built Design Awards. Located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Research Yard was designed as a “space for Pratt Institute students and researchers to develop innovative strategies bridging art, design, engineering, and technology.”

  • First-year Historic Preservation student Siena Leone-Getten was announced as a 2024 Zabar Scholar by the Preservation League of New York State. The award provides scholarship funding to “the best and brightest preservation students studying in NYS.”

  • Beyoncé wears pieces by two Pratt alumni in her recent Super Bowl Verizon commercial and the videos for her new singles. Laurel DeWitt, BFA Fashion Design ’06, created a metal bra for “Texas Hold ‘Em” and a chain dress and hat for “16 Carriages,” while Sarah Sokol, BFA Interior Design ’11, designed two hats for the Verizon commercial.

  • Anton Ginzburg, adjunct assistant professor of graduate communications design, has a solo exhibition opening at Contemporary Calgary on March 13. Featuring paintings, sculpture, and generated video, Anton Ginzburg: Surface is “a reflection on the use of technology as it relates to cultural labour, data aesthetics, and machine learning.”

  • Pat Steir, BFA Graphic Arts ’62, is interviewed in T Magazine about her early career, creative process, and how being colorblind inspired her latest series of abstract paintings, on view now at Hauser & Wirth’s West Hollywood gallery. “The thing is, I only wanted to be an artist,” she said. “I only wanted to do this work in my life. Nothing else.”

  • Edel Rodriguez, BFA Painting ’94, was awarded the 2024 Hamilton King Award by the Society of Illustrators. His work, which has been commissioned by The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and The New Yorker, is “an examination of identity, cultural displacement, and mortality.”

  • Pratt President Frances Bronet was invited to contribute to the “50 Ideas for a Stronger and More Equitable Brooklyn” report by the Center for an Urban Future and Brooklyn Org and she called for launching a universal climate literacy campaign. “Every Brooklynite must be climate literate so that they can address the tremendous environmental challenges that confront us,” Bronet wrote. “Climate literacy starts with the understanding that we all share a planet and our humanity.”

  • Simon Arizpe, visiting instructor of undergraduate communications design, has been selected as a 2024 artist-in-residence for Zion National Park in St. George, Utah. The art created during the monthlong residency program “helps visitors understand and appreciate Zion and reflects the National Park Service’s mission to conserve the park’s landscapes, plants, animals and history.”

  • Mickalene Thomas, BFA Fine Arts ’00, and Jane South, chair of fine arts, will be honored as a “Dynamic Duo” at the 2024 Badass Art Woman Awards hosted by Project for Empty Space on April 10. “Together, Mickalene Thomas and Jane South founded Pratt>Forward, which is a free platform that inspires and mentors emerging artists by nurturing artistic exploration, bolstering career development skills, empowering cultural advocacy, and collaborating to develop new artist-led models for cultural engagement.”

More Pratt Institute News

Two people are walking through Pratt campus in springtime. The trees are in bloom with pink flowers. The people are wearing long pants and light jackets.

Pratt Institute Ranked in Top 10 of Art & Design Universities

The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 also place Pratt in the top five universities for art and design in the United States. Pratt was also ranked in the Top 10 for History of Art.
A modern, stepped glass building with reflective windows and terraces featuring greenery rises along the waterfront in an industrial urban setting. A large white ship is docked nearby, with warehouses and other industrial structures visible in the background. The sky is clear and blue, and the calm water in the foreground reflects the buildings and sky.

Pratt Drives Innovation at Brooklyn Navy Yard

From Pratt Institute News

New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler celebrates Pratt’s partnership with the Brooklyn Navy Yard in an op-ed for Crain’s New York Business.
A young man with short, curly brown hair and light skin stands on a bridge with a serious expression. He wears a white graphic t-shirt with red text and an illustration, and a pair of sunglasses hangs from the collar of his shirt. The background features a metal bridge structure with red railings and a cityscape visible in the distance under a clear blue sky. The soft lighting suggests it is late afternoon or early evening.

Graduate Architecture Student Quinn Gregory Named 2025 Fulbright Semifinalist

From Pratt Institute News

Pratt Institute was also named a Fulbright Top Producing Institute for the sixth consecutive year.