CLASS notes CLASS notes
thousands of information professionals in over 80 countries worldwide. The Rising Star Award is presented annually to SLA members who demonstrate exceptional promise of leadership and contribution to SLA and the information profession. William “Billy” Cotton, Industrial Design ’09, and co-designer Michael Bargo celebrated the release of their new Moste furniture collection, to be sold exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.
photos: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST (durga), Douglas Dodds, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (VEROSTKO)
Clarissa Horton, B.F.A. Painting ’10, was selected along with 29 other artists to participate in the group exhibition “Movers & Shakers: MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Stars of the Georgia Arts Scene” at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) from January through March of 2011. Smrita Jain, M.S. Comm-D ’10, has established art galleries in both the United States and India by the name Surmrit Gallery of Art and Design. She and her partner have also announced the launch of their official website, www. surmritgallery.com. Jain also presented her first solo photography
exhibition, called “Creating Durga,” at Pratt Manhattan Gallery in April 2011. Callie Kant, M.S. Comm-D ’10, was chosen as a Merit winner for her project Tangible Design in the student category of HOW magazine’s recent International Design Awards. Kant’s project will appear in an upcoming issue of the publication. Tory Novikova, B.F.A. Comm-D ’10, launched a new site for Torynova Couture’s Wearable Stories Collection, featuring high-end his-and-her garments illustrated from classical tales and cultural stories. For more information and to view the collection visit www. torynovacouture.com. Tiffany Nousiopoulos, B.F.A. Fashion Design ’10, was chosen to participate as one of the 24 finalists in the BRIDES Magazine Operation Dream Dress contest. Contestants were invited to submit a sketch of a wedding dress that illustrated the theme “artful romance.” The photos and voting were opened to audiences across the country at operationdreamdress.com.
In Memoriam: Monica Shay Pratt has established a scholarship in the name of Associate Professor Monica Shay, who headed the Institute’s acclaimed program in Arts and Cultural Management until her untimely death last summer. The 58-year-old Shay oversaw the Arts and Cultural Management program, recognized internationally for its innovative curriculum, for the last 11 years. The scholarship in her name will allow deserving students to pursue an education in the field to which Shay was so committed. Expressions of sympathy in the form of gifts to the fund may be made to Pratt Institute. Gifts may be made online at http://alumni.pratt.edu/shay. Checks should be made payable to Pratt Institute and sent to the attention of Emily Moqtaderi, Pratt Institute, Institutional Advancement, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Please include “Monica Shay Scholarship” in the check’s memo line.
Roman Verostko, M.F.A. ’61, was a painter for 30 years before turning his studio into what he calls an “electronic scriptorium” with computers and drawing machines with mechanical arms known as pen plotters. When he attended Pratt in the early 1960s Verostko was a Benedictine monk planning to reform religious art practice within the church. He wore a white collar to classes, where he was known as “Father Roman,” and lived off campus at St. Michael’s Parish in Manhattan. “Pratt was central to experiences that would change the direction of my life,” Verostko said. “It led me to reevaluate not only my views on art but also those underlying my life as a monk.” After graduation, he joined the faculty of his alma mater, St. Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and served as art and architecture editor for McGraw-Hill’s 15-volume New Catholic Encyclopedia. By 1968 he had left the order, married, and joined the faculty of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) where he taught for 27 years. By 1987 he had created the world’s first software-driven “brushed” paintings with Oriental brushes mounted on a pen plotter. Today, his studio continues to integrate this work—what he calls “algorist” practice—with fine art traditions. Widely acclaimed for his work, Verostko was honored with the SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2009. In a demonstration in June 2011, Verostko’s drawing machine created a line-by-line artwork projected on a blank three-story wall of MCAD in a sunset-to-sunrise drawing session. As each stroke traced its path, viewers experienced sound aligned with the speed and direction of the drawing path. 57