Internship and Career Support

The Center for Career and Professional Development

The Center for Career and Professional Development offers career and internship counseling, résumé and portfolio assistance, industry mentoring, pro­fessional development, workshops, entrepre­neurial support, and a lifelong job search support system. One year after graduation, 98 percent of Pratt’s graduate students are employed.  Qualified students are offered challenging on-the-job experiences in top art galleries, publishing houses, and architecture and design firms in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, giving them firsthand work experience as well as credit toward professional degrees.

State-of-the-Art Technology

Pratt’s computer labs and digital output centers have the most current equipment available. Computer labs offer computer workstations, color scanners, color and black-and-white printers and plotters, digital and analog output centers, digital photography, video and sound bays, multimedia video projection, and multiple servers. Equipped with everything from film editing and digital animation to two and three-dimensional rendering, all workstations feature the latest software for the departments using them. Those working in the three-dimensional realm have access to 3-D printers, laser cutters, and CNC milling machines. Pratt continually upgrades lab equipment as industry standards change.

Exhibitions

Gallery space, both on the Brooklyn campus and at Pratt Manhattan, is extensive, showing the work of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and other well-known artists, architects, and designers throughout the academic year. Pratt Manhattan Gallery is a public art gallery that strives to present significant work from around the world in the fields of art, architecture, fashion, and design. The Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery on the Brooklyn campus mounts faculty and student exhibitions, as well as thematic shows featuring the work of unaffiliated artists. In addition, Pratt has more than 15 other galleries located across its Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses.

Libraries

The Pratt Library on the Brooklyn campus is located in an 1896 landmark building with interiors by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co. Collections and services are focused on the visual arts, architecture, design, creative writing, and allied fields. Additional materials support the general education curriculum. The Library houses more than 200,000 volumes of print materials, including more than 600 periodicals, rare books, and the college archives. The Library also includes a multimedia center, housing nearly 3,000 film and video titles, as well as the Visual Resources Center, a collection of more than 120,000 circulating architecture, art, and design digital images.

The Pratt Manhattan Center Library supports visiting researchers as well as the Pratt community. The Library has a growing collection of monographs, serials, and multimedia, as well as stock photography. It offers a wide range of electronic resources, including general and subject-specific databases, all of which are available off-site.

Cultural Partnerships in New York City

The Institute has created partnerships with a number of major cultural institutions so students may take advantage of the vast opportunities offered in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Students participate in collaborative work as part of their curriculum or simply have class visits. On their own, Pratt students may visit free of charge.

The Brooklyn Museum, located close to the Brooklyn campus, has an impressive permanent collection and Egyptian art collection. The Asian art collection is one of the more diverse and comprehensive in the New York metropolitan area. The museum puts on several contemp­orary—and often local—art exhibitions each year. The “First Saturday” of each month is a day of special events when the museum is free to the community.

Open year-round, the adjacent Brooklyn Botanic Garden features one of the most impressive Japanese gardens outside of Japan. It captures nature in miniature: trees and shrubs, carefully dwarfed and shaped by cloud pruning, are surrounded by hills and a pond. The Cranford Rose Garden features 5,000 bushes of 1,200 varieties of roses.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, popularly known as BAM, is at the vanguard of theater offerings. You can see productions ranging from performance art and independent films to stylized Shakespearean productions. Pratt students can attend BAM events at discounted rates.

In Manhattan, Pratt students also enjoy visiting these institutions where admission fees are waived: the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Frick Collection, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Study Abroad Programs

Pratt’s study abroad programs combine the Institute’s academic excellence with firsthand exposure to some of the most vibrant international centers of art, design, and architecture.

For more information on individual programs, contact Maria Soares, Director of Study Abroad and International Partnerships, at msoares@pratt.edu, or visit https://www.pratt.edu/continuing-and-professional-studies/study-abroad/.

Commitment to Sustainability

Pratt Institute takes a leadership role in sustainability for schools of art, design, and architecture nationwide. At this critical moment, when our environment and ways of life are at risk, we have a responsibility to ensure that each of our graduates has a deep awareness of ecology, environmental issues, and social justice.

In The Princeton Review’s 2013 Guide to 322 Green Colleges, Pratt was recognized as one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges. As an active participant in the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), Pratt seeks to be a carbon-neutral campus. In 2010, Myrtle Hall, a LEED Gold-certified building designed by the firm WASA/Studio A, was completed. The 120,000-square-foot building is a testament to Pratt’s commitment to sustainability.

Regardless of discipline, our graduates must be able to integrate best sustainable practices into their professional lives. Within each program, Pratt students are offered an opportunity to learn to think in new ways about the relationship of designer to product, architect to built environment, and artist to creative expression. The Institute is continuously working to reduce our carbon footprint, “greening” our dorms, facilities, and classrooms, and creating an ongoing, living laboratory from which our students can observe, participate, and experiment.

The Institute’s Center for Sustainable Design Strategies (CSDS) is an active and collaborative resource for sustain­able design at Pratt’s Brooklyn campus. Under the umbrella of CSDS, the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation provides ambitious students and Pratt alumni with a stimulating place to launch sustainability-minded businesses, providing office space, planning support, and access to shop facilities. For more information, go to csds.pratt.edu.