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First Lady Michelle Obama and Publicolor student Elisha Almonte with Pratt alumna and Publicolor Founder and President Ruth Lande Shuman (M.I.D. ’89), who received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award | Photo courtesy of Publicolor
Pratt alumna RitaSue Siegel (B.I.D. ’61 and M.I.D. ’68) received the 2015 Rowena Reed Kostellow Award.
The White House Honors Alumna Ruth Lande Shuman with Prestigious Youth Program Award
Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund Honors Alumna and Design Recruiter RitaSue Siegel
First Lady Michelle Obama awarded Interior Design alumna Ruth Lande Shuman (M.I.D. ’89) the nation’s highest honor for out-of-school arts and humanities programs, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, at a White House ceremony in November. Shuman received this award, which recognizes the achievements of programs that celebrate the creativity of America’s young people, for her nonprofit organization Publicolor—one of 12 programs chosen from a pool of more than 350. Publicolor, which Shuman founded in 1996, uses color, collaboration, design, and commercial painting to engage at-risk students, providing design-based programs that empower students to make their schools more beautiful while learning skills to prepare them for college and a career.
On March 10, RitaSue Siegel (B.I.D. ’61, M.I.D. ’68) was honored with the Rowena Reed Kostellow (RRK) Award for her support and enhancement of the industrial design profession at an event benefitting the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund. Established in 1988, the fund supports scholarships and communicates the philosophy of its namesake, one of the founders of the Industrial Design Department, through programs and published work. Event speakers included Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte, Acting Industrial Design Chair Scott Lundberg (M.I.D. ’98), Louis Nelson (B.I.D. ’58, M.I.D. ’64), and Fund Chair Tucker Viemeister (B.I.D. ’74).
Museum of the City of New York Presents Solo Exhibitions by Pratt Alumni Paul Rand and Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao The Museum of the City of New York recently held concurrent solo exhibitions by two prominent alumni: iconic graphic designer Paul Rand (Illustration ’32) and photographer Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao (B.F.A. Photography ’03). Everything Is Design: The Work of Paul Rand, on view through July 19, showcases projects from Rand’s long career, including more than 150 advertisements, posters, corporate brochures, and books designed by Rand for clients such as IBM, ABC, and UPS, among others. The exhibition highlights Rand’s design philosophy, as well as his role in incorporating Cubist and Constructivist ideas into American graphic design. Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: Assembled Realities was a retrospective of large-scale photographs encompassing 10 years of work and featuring more than 40 of Liao’s images of the ever-changing landscape of New York City. Combining multiple exposures of the same location taken over the course of several hours, Liao’s panoramic photographs document the city's energy and diversity.
Pratt Students Work with New York Public Library Program to Answer Inmates’ Questions For the past two years, as part of the Pratt School of Information and Library Science (SILS) course “Information Services and Resources,” taught by Associate Professor of Information and Library Science Debbie Rabina and Visiting Assistant Professor Emily Drabinski, SILS students have responded to reference queries from incarcerated people, who lack access to the Internet and other information sources. The class assists the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Correctional Services Program run by NYPL Correctional Services Supervising Librarian and Pratt alumna Sarah Ball (M.S. Library Science ’10), whose team responds to as many as 60 letters each week from people incarcerated in New York and across the country.
Alumnus Gaspar de Jesus Competes on New Ellen DeGeneres Television Series Gaspar de Jesus (B.I.D. ’01) was one of six designers selected to compete on Ellen’s Design Challenge, a new HGTV series from the Emmy Award-winning entertainer and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. De Jesus, who showcased work that he had created for his senior thesis project at Pratt, has credited his time at the Institute as essential to securing his spot on the show.