The Daily Hub

Visiting Professor of Art and Design Education Theodora Skipitares’s new puppetry piece, The Four Lives, will premiere off-Broadway at La MaMa in April. “The Four Lives is inspired by the belief of the ancient philosopher Pythagoras, who believed that each soul experiences four lives—as a mineral, a vegetable, an animal, and a human. The Four Lives depicts these soul changes through a variety of puppets in different, immersive environments.”

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.”

Liam Monaghan, MID ’25, was awarded 2nd place in the nationwide Bienenstock Furniture and Interior Design Competition for his entry R-Chair, which he designed as a hybrid between “an upright dining or deck chair and a full pool recliner.”

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.”