Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street Exhibition

September 25 - November 7, 2009

Reception with live music and performances:

Friday, October 9, 6 - 8 pm


Design Trio Project

Inspired by the newly created Center for Sustainable Design Studies and Research (CSDS) led by Deb Johnson, this exhibition in two parts will document both theoretical and creative approaches to the design and interpretation of urban streets as well as document the process of a local realized urban design project.


In August of 2009 the Pratt Manhattan Gallery was transformed into a design studio where three invited guests met and worked. The cross-disciplinary design trio (pictured below) of Amy Guggenheim, artist, writer, filmmaker and professor; Mitchell Joachim, architect, designer and co-founder Terreform ONE; and Leon Reid IV, street artist, teacher, and Pratt alumnus met to discuss, and theorize the design of the “street” for our contemporary culture, for sustaining communities, and to add to the exploration of contemporary critical design theory.

Pratt Falls

A cabaret produced by Larry Litt that celebrates our urban environment with music, comedy and performance.


Fridays, October 9, 16, and election night Tuesday, November 3, 7 p.m.

















Calendar of Events in the Gallery


Friday, October 9, 6 – 8 pm

“Design Jazz” reception 6- 8 pm, with live music by Big Words. Beginning at 7 pm “Pratt Falls: Love/Loss Street.” Tulu Bayar performs Marriages of Convenience, aided by street matchmaker Dr. Al Fresco, also MTA Service Specialists help ease your travels around NYC


Wednesday, October 14, 6:30 – 9:30 pm

“Global Cinema Salon” screening and discussion of the film “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” with introduction and first-hand account by Dr. Hans Guggenheim


Thursday, October 15, 7 pm

“At Odds: The Law and Public Art,” A panel discussion in conjunction with Art in Odd Places


Friday, October 16, 7 pm

“Pratt Falls: Mean/Easy Street” with Jim Costanzo, Clark Clark(en) and Jeff Kreisler, author, “Get Rich Cheating”


Thursday, October 15, 7 pm

“At Odds: The Law and Public Art”, A panel discussion in conjunction with Art in Odd Places


Wednesday, October 21, 6:30 – 9:30 pm

“Global Cinema Salon” screening and discussion of the new Taiwanese film “The Human Comedy” with introduction by film curator Christine Tsui-Hua Huang


Tuesday, November 3, 7 pm

“Pratt Falls: Campaign/Protest Street” and Election Night Watch party with guest DJ, Rev Billy, The Yes Men, comedian Michael Hayne, and Street Laugh Yoga


“Pratt Falls” produced by Larry Litt, “Global Cinema Salon,” produced and moderated by Amy Guggenheim


Art in Odd Places, will produce “SIGN,” a festival exploring the odd, ordinary and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life will take place along 14th Street, including the windows of Pratt Manhattan. October 1- 16, 2009.



Pratt Manhattan Gallery

144 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM


The exhibition and events are free and open to the public. For more information, please call 212-647-7778. Updates and podcasts available at www.pratt.edu/exhibitions.


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September 2009

Incubator designers conduct a workshop with South Bronx high school students

Portraits: Frank Ishman


Martha Wilson as “Barbara Bush,” “Pratt Falls,” 2008

Pratt CSDS Design Incubator Project

The second part of this exhibition will chronicle the design process of nine of young designers who are members of the Pratt CSDS Design Incubator. Designers include: Emily Potter,George Estreich, David Wright, Zachary Feltoon, Paul Dolick, Jason Pfaeffle, Yen Trinh, Daniel Jeffries, Paul Kawai. Robert Langhorn, professor, Industrial Design, Pratt Institute is the project leader and Kristina Drury is the project manager.


The group is collaborating on a streetscape element to be incorporated into the Lafayette Avenue section of the South Bronx Greenway project. The element will be built and decorated by the people living on Lafayette Avenue. This project is in collaboration with Miquela Craytor, executive director, Sustainable South Bronx; Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, Executive Director, The Point Community Development Corportation and Michael G. Cluer,  landscape designer with Mathews Nielson Landscape Architecture, the firm responsible for the design of the Greenway.


Explorations in the form of video, renderings and models with be simultaneously displayed by both groups.