The Daily Hub

Animation pioneer Bessie Mae Kelley, who enrolled at Pratt to study art in 1910, has been newly recognized as one of the first women to hand-draw films, work that had long been overlooked. Recent research on her legacy was highlighted by NPR and the New York Times.

Ron Shiffman, professor emeritus in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE), was interviewed on WBAI radio about his over 50 years of planning work in New York City neighborhoods, including as a co-founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development.

Dezeen highlighted a Staten Island animal shelter designed by Garrison Architects led by James Garrison, adjunct professor in Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD), that involves locally made materials and animal-friendly features: “Animal shelters are interesting buildings—they reflect broadly our values and relationship to nature.”

Signs naming a Los Angeles intersection “Robert Vargas Square” in honor of Fine Arts alumnus ​​Robert Vargas, known for his large-scale murals in cities across the world, were unveiled this month in Boyle Heights.

Pratt Trustee and alumnus Derrick Adams, BFA Art and Design Education ’96, is one of the artists being commissioned to create prototypes for more inclusive monuments on the National Mall in Washington, DC. As reported by the New York Times, Adams has proposed a playground that would explore histories of desegregation.

Pratt’s Summer PreCollege program was included on the ArtsBridge consultancy’s 2023 picks for “Best Summer Arts Programs.”

This month, Mavis Wiggins, BFA Environmental Design ’75, was inducted into Interior Design’s Hall of Fame: “At Pratt, I realized I could shape space and continue to enjoy the fruits of what fine art offers, and even apply some of those principals to interior architecture.”

Oopsa co-founded by Eric Moed, BArch ’12 and visiting assistant professor of undergraduate architecture, was selected for the Brooklyn Public Library’s 2022-23 BKLYN Incubator and will be developing a neighborhood narrative and installation for the Central Branch’s entry lobby. Moed’s work is featured in the fall 2022 issue of Prattfolio.

Alumni Olga Lysenko and James Scully developed the Burning Gotham audio fiction series focused on New York below 14th Street in 1835. It was a 2022 Tribeca Audio Premieres Official Selection.

Rosetta S. Elkin, the academic director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program, joined the Economy, Land & Climate Podcast to discuss the complex issues around large-scale tree planting: “We need to address deforestation rather than fund massive billion tree planting projects.”