Pratt Institute in NYC is a Top US Art College
How is this Art School involved in the Community of New York City?
Aug 6, 2009
Continuing the interview with Pratt Institute in New York City, one of the top art colleges in the United States.
How is your college involved in the community in which it is located?
Pratt Institute and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership recently announced a collaboration to expand the reach of PrattCard, Pratt's student and faculty identification card, to businesses on the Myrtle Avenue commercial corridor at the start of the Fall 2009 semester. Once in place, Pratt students, faculty, and staff will be able to put a cash balance on their cards similar to a debit card that can be used to shop or dine at participating Myrtle Avenue businesses.
Community Service and the Community Engagement Board (C-Board) - C-Board is a group of Pratt students who organize and plan service, leadership, and civic engagement opportunities for the campus community. Spring 2009 efforts coordinating through C-Board include: Costume Read-Out and Book Sorting with America Reads; Mural project at a local day care center; Kiva.org charity sale; MS Charity Concert w/ Kappa Sigma Fraternity; Spring Fest Closet Clean-Out Clothing Drive; Alternative Spring Break trip to New York's Shelter Island; Project Cicero Book Sorting; CDSC Food Pantry volunteering; Blood Drive tabling/petition; Valentine's Day card-making project for patients at the New York Methodist Hospital.
Brooklyn Arts Council - Pratt President Thomas F. Schutte serves as chairman of the Brooklyn Arts Council, an organization that helps to create an environment conducive to the arts by providing grants and technical assistance to artists, creative professionals, and arts organizations, and organizes free arts programming for thousands of area residents each year.
Design Corps Class - Design Corps simulates a real-world graphic design shop to encourage and promote the relationship between design practice and design education. Established in the fall of 2005, the course provides non-profit organizations with high-quality professional work at no cost, while allowing undergraduate junior and senior communications design students to gain valuable experience. Recent clients have included St. John's Bread and Life, which operates a food pantry and mobile soup kitchen for residents of Brooklyn, and the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
America Reads/Counts Program - At Pratt Institute's Brooklyn Campus, work-study and volunteer tutors participating in the America Reads/Counts Challenge are part of a long-standing institutional commitment to community service. Documented outcomes of the program illustrate significant improvement in the literacy and math skills of the children tutored by Pratt students. The America Reads/Counts program at Pratt institute has become one of the leading colleges providing mathematics and literacy services to over 3,000 children and their families each year.
The program has grown to provide these services to 32 sites in Brooklyn and the metropolitan New York area including sites with special needs. Additional special needs partnerships include: St. Francis De Sales School for the Deaf, The Helen Keller School and The Light House school for the visually impaired and the Manhattan school for Autistic children and Hale House.
Saturday Art School - Since 1897, Pratt Institute's Saturday Art School has been offering a broad range of classes for children, adolescents, pre-school students, and adults. This program is a teaching laboratory; all classes are taught by education students who are supervised by Pratt faculty. Saturday Art School continues to validate the belief upheld by the Institute that it is never too early or too late for children and adults to develop their potential as creative individuals.
The program has also provided compelling evidence that the development of art ability enhances learning and quality of work within other subjects. Saturday Art School students are encouraged to explore a variety of media, techniques, and approaches. Projects involving new media, cartooning, illustration, printmaking, creative writing, performance, and puppetry may be included in selected classes in addition to traditional materials and methods.
Pratt Summer Design Program - Pratt Summer Design helps to bring design into the community-at-large. Teaching design is about giving students agency over the images, products, and technologies that increasingly dominate their lives. The program is not only important for the students, but it is meaningful for the designers/teachers who must undergo the process of reconsidering and relearning the reasons why they believe in the discipline.
Design Initiative for Community Empowerment (DICE) - Design Initiative for Community Empowerment offers studio courses in Graphic Design; Fashion and Textile Design; and Product Design and Accessories to all Brooklyn public high school students. This initiative is supported by Pratt's Department of Art and Design Education.
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