The Pratt Sustainability Center is delighted to announce this Spring’s Pratt Earth Action Week (PEAW), which will take place from April 1 – April 6, 2024. This week-long series of sustainability events will celebrate the creative collaborations of the Pratt sustainability community and networks and help us connect, in person and remotely, across groups, disciplines, and initiatives. The week’s programming will continue to address intersecting crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and racial and social injustice that have brought into relief systemic inequalities and unsustainable systems but seek to highlight successes and ongoing progress made by our students, faculty, staff, and partners in response to these challenges. Events throughout the week will provide an architecture for conversation, debate, and the development of art and design solutions to these complex problems.
A collection of sustainability-centered student projects drawn from across the Institute over the last year.
Interior Design Department Lobby Show
Monday, April 1 – Saturday, April 6 Pratt Studios, 2nd Floor Lobby
PARTICIPANTS: Students from the Interior Design Department
Interior Design Department hosts FA23 Senior Option Studio work in the Pratt Studio 2nd Flr Lobby. It showcases design ideas submitted to the SDGs International Design Awards competition sponsored by United Nations Academic Impact. As a result, 8 students received Honorable Mention for their individual design proposal that catered to the next generation of children. The work explored both Sustainability and Social Responsibility and is part of the Biomimicry course taught by Prof. Tetsu Ohara. Come take a look!
Yoga for Eco-Burnout | Session 1 Brooklyn
Monday, April 1st | 10:00 – 11:00 am Rose Garden, Pratt Brooklyn Campus (if weather is not suitable for outdoor practice, we will meet in Room 112, Higgins Hall South)
Featuring: Dr. Gopinaath Kannabiran
People who engage with social justice related issues and environmental concerns through their work often experience ecological burnout. It is necessary to process our eco-burnout through communal body-based practices. This event will explore communal yoga practice to engage with and talk about eco-burnout. No prior yoga experience is required. Please bring a yoga mat and bottle of water for practice. Dr. Gopinaath Kannabiran is a Certified Advanced Yoga Teacher and will lead two in-person beginner-level group yoga classes. After practice, Dr. Kannabiran will host an online panel discussion with guest speaker Dr. Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher and author of the book ‘Earth Emotions’ (2019).
Mendables
Monday, April 1st | 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm Pratt Sustainability Center | Engineering, rm 001
Hosted by: Jade VandenBrink
This is an event where people can bring their broken clothes and we can either visibly or invisibly mend them. Jade VandenBrink will be giving lessons on how to mend will be provided to attendees!
Pratt BioBlitz 2024
Opening Ceremonies Monday, April 1st | 12:30 – 1:30 pm
During this week-long event, participants will learn how to use the SEEK app and the iNaturalist platform to identify organisms in their environment. We’ll get you up to speed with these amazing biodiversity-documentation resources so you can contribute to a week-long BioBlitz (with prizes!) and learn about the opportunity to participate in the City Nature Challenge 2024 BioBlitz, a weekend-long celebration of New York City’s biodiversity that takes place April 26th-29th, 2024.
Mini Microscopes and Optical Microscopy
Monday, April 1st | 2:00 – 4:00 pm Foundations Lab, Main Building, 401
Presented by: Rebeca Acosta, Foundations Technician, Foundation Lab, Pratt Institute
This event will take place in The Foundations lab any Pratt student, staff, or faculty member is invited to try our new mini microscopes and optical microscopy kits to create light imagery and explore things we can’t see.
Agnes Varda’s Gleaners
Tuesday, April 2nd | 12:00 – 2:00 pm Pratt Sustainability Center, Engineering rm 001
This event is a screening for anyone interested in film, environmental issues as well as threatened practices of sustainability, environmental protection, economic stratification, community, philosophy, survival and art, in other words gleaning broadly understood. This is a in-person event.
INTtalk: Design to Help Climate Refugees
Tuesday, April 2nd | 12:30 – 1:30pm Steuben Hall 311 & Virtual
By exploring topics of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, this INTtalk will cover the pedagogical approaches of Biomimicry class and its results from the FA23 UN SDGs design competition organized by United Nations Academic Impact. All design proposals revolve around the element of water. Impact and implication of shortage or excess thereof by climate change.
Join this session to learn how to create a campaign strategy based on your passion and discover ways to achieve systems change-level impact. Currently, buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of the total global energy-related carbon emissions. As designers, we hold the responsibility to design and construct sustainable spaces that have a low carbon footprint. If you are someone who is passionate about designing eco-friendly buildings and spaces and would like to share your work and advocate for the same, then we invite you to join us. You will learn from Obama Foundation Leaders who work with communities across the globe and help you build an effective strategy to achieve sustainability and climate action impact goals.
Birding for Artists
Postponed to Tuesday, April 9rd | 9:00 am – 11:00 am Foundations Lab, Main 401
Presenter: Divya Anantharaman, Gotham Taxidermy
Art and science are both ways of making sense of the world, using observations to inform work. In this birding experience, we will engage with the act of observation so that we can become more mindful artists.
GiveTake Donation Drive
Wednesday, April 3rd | 2:00 -4:00 pm Design Center Lobby
Hosted by: GiveTake | Pratt Sustainability Center
Have extra supplies from a project? Spring cleaning before move-out? Donate to the GiveTake & win swag prizes while saving materials.
From Cotton to Designing Change: A Conversation with Emiko McCoy
Wednesday, April 3rd | 6:00 – 7:00 pm Online
Presented by: Yutaka Takiura, AIA, Associate Professor, Creative Enterprise Leadership, Pratt Institute Innocent Ekejiuba, Visiting Assistant Professor, Creative Enterprise Leadership, Pratt Institute
The Creative Enterprise Leadership invites you to a discussion centered around sustainability, inspiration, and inclusion with Emiko McCoy. Raised in Dunn, North Carolina, as the daughter of cotton pickers, Emiko’s journey from humble beginnings to designing for renowned brands like Vera Wang and Nike is nothing short of inspiring. Her educational pursuit of a Master’s in Design Management at Pratt Institute further deepened her commitment to sustainable design. Join us as Emiko shares her insights, experiences, and unwavering dedication to creating a more sustainable future, rooted in resilience, innovation, and gratitude.
Join us for a screening of the thought-provoking film “Home” during Pratt Earth Action Week! This documentary offers a unique perspective on the interconnectedness of our world. Let’s gather, learn, and inspire each other to take action towards a more sustainable future. Snacks will be provided. In addition, our libraries will feature a special book display on sustainability, eco-living, and environmentalism, offering a wealth of resources for further learning.
Pratt 2030 Campus Climate Action Plan Vision Resilience Thinking Workshop
PRESENTERS: SES-631 course Sustainable Communities students: Angela Neefus, and Kasturi Sudesh Salvi MSCI-451/651 Climate Change & Communities students Professor Rafael de Balanzo Joue, Visiting Assistant Professor Professor Amy Motzny, Visiting Assistant Professor Professor Enrique Lanz Oca, Adjunct Professor CCE
This is an in-person event organized by students and faculty of the SES-631 course Sustainable Communities & MSCI-451/651 Climate Change & Communities, running a collective transdisciplinary mapping workshop based on the resilience thinking approach and open to the Pratt Community. The goal will be to understand the complexity of challenges and risks of the Pratt campus community in the face of climate change. The event is a participatory process mapping open to a general audience that range from students to Pratt community members.
Yoga for Eco-Burnout – Session 2
Thursday, April 4th | 10:00 am – 11:00 am Room 403, Pratt Manhattan Campus
This event will explore communal yoga practice to engage with and talk about eco-burnout. We will do two in-person group yoga practice sessions and end with an online panel discussion with guest speaker, Dr. Glenn Albrecht.
People who engage with social justice related issues and environmental concerns through their work often experience ecological burnout. It is necessary to process our eco-burnout through communal body-based practices. This event will explore communal yoga practice to engage with and talk about eco-burnout. No prior yoga experience is required. Please bring a yoga mat and bottle of water for practice. Dr. Gopinaath Kannabiran is a Certified Advanced Yoga Teacher and will lead two in-person beginner-level group yoga classes. After practice, Dr. Kannabiran will host an online panel discussion with guest speaker Dr. Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher and author of the book ‘Earth Emotions‘ (2019).
Building Resilience through Community Engagement
Thursday, April 4th | 12:00 – 1:00 pm Online
Presented by: Sameera Chukkapalli Holmes, Needlab Wael Habbal, Leading Change network, Public Narrative Coach Elissavet Sfri, Artist, Performer
Join us, to discover from successful community activists about building trust and enhancing community engagement. More united and resilient communities are better equipped to withstand challenges, and resilience is crucial in addressing climate change.
Discover from successful community activists about building trust and enhancing community engagement. They have executed various initiatives and united individuals from all over the world to discuss complex problems and encourage them to take action. Learn how to approach a goal from various perspectives. Involving the community to comprehend the root causes of an issue and collaborating with them to create solutions is the most inclusive and participatory approach to community engagement-based problem-solving and developing systems-level change. More united and resilient communities are better equipped to withstand challenges, and resilience is crucial in addressing climate change. The engagement will be through dance, art, and hands-on working together with the community.
Modular Crisis
Thursday, April 4th | 3:00 – 4:00 pm Higgins Hall 204 and Online
Presented by: Graduate Architecture
How we Love, Hate, and Can’t Escape Modular Design Through a series of Graduate Architecture Studio and Seminars – students design details and explore the role of modular design through time as they prepare a compendium for publication. Focusing on Lightness and Flexibility, the Hard and the Soft, Metabolism, and Crisis vs Utopia, various architectural systems are analyzed to understand our obsession with a universal solution.
Fungi Fabrication
Thursday, April 4th | 4:00 – 5:30 pm Pratt Sustainability Center, Engineerng Building RM 001
Presented by: Amy Chien, Pratt alumni, Biomaterials Studio Lead at Genspace, workshop leader
Join us in learning the basics of sustainable design with mycelium.
Within this workshop, we will learn the process of sculpting fungi-based art and design. Our planet is in need of sustainable, biodegradable, healthy materials. The biotech industry is pioneering biobased materials such as fungi in their products because they outperform existing products while having negative to low impact on the planet. In this workshop, we’ll learn the basics of designing with mycelium (the vegetative fibers of mushrooms) as an alternative, healthier material for existing products. You’ll get to grow your own mycelium art piece to take home – starting from a grow bag and mycelium substrate to sculpting mycelium with a mold.
We hope to invite members of the Pratt community who are interested in the development of sustainable materials as a means to address the impact of climate change. This event will take place in person.
Art, Sound Healing Experience
Thursday, April 4th | 5:00 – 6:15 pm
Presented by: Suzanne Watters
Heal yourself, and heal the planet through art, sound, and poetry.
This event is a way for participants to connect to the earth through art, sound, meditation, and poetry. The intended audience is anyone in the Pratt Community, and the event will take place in person, in my thesis show space (A4 on the 7th floor in the Accelerator Space of the Pfizer Building on Flushing Avenue).
Please join 2nd year MFA student, Suzanne Watters, for a restorative and meditative “Art, Sound Healing Experience” in her thesis show space, A4 in the Accelerator area of the Pfizer Building at 630 Flushing Avenue. The event will take place on April 4th from 5-6:15 pm. Feel rested and connected to the earth through natural woven color and rhythmic sound. Suzanne reads her own poetry and plays multiple instruments (some made by her) that will help clear your energy centers, raise your vibrational level and feel blissfully in the moment. Heal yourself, heal the planet. Mats are available, but please feel free to bring your own yoga mat, blanket and pillow.
Pedagogy and Cartography: A Casestudy in Rising Water
Friday, April 5th | 10:00 am-12:30 pm Online Event
Presented by: Pratt Historic Preservation Presenters: Professor Mark Heller Dr. Uzma Rizvi Deniz Cavdir Radhya Kareem
An exploration of alternate methods of cartography and archaeology in the midst of rising water and rapidly changing environments.
This dialogue will explore the intriguing intersection of landscape, geography, heritage, cartography, and the need to create new visualization techniques. Dr Uzma Rizvi and Professor Mark Heller share their cartographic investigations focusing on the flooding of the Indus river flood bed. Implications are assessed from the city of Qambar to the archaeological site of Mohenjodaro. Professor Heller will explore cartographic pedagogies underpinning tangible environmental realities with different case studies. A key example includes mapping flooding in Qambar using multi-spectral data. Sometimes you need to change the way you’re looking at things (or tap into a different light frequency!). Dr. Uzma Rizvi from the Anthropology and Urban Studies department will speak to decolonizing archaeology. She speaks specifically towards the use of non-invasive data capture techniques at the M.Lab focused on the ruins at Mohenjo Daro. Her team’s recent work has dealt with the intersection of decolonizing the understanding of the site (like mapping the historical drainage system of the site to reveal patterns of political structure) as well as the environmental impact of the recent 2022 flooding.
Plant Propagation Workshop
Friday, April 5th | 12:00 – 2:00 pm Foundations Lab Main 401
Presented by: Eleanor King, Technical Director of Foundation
For this hands-on workshop, participants will learn some basics of how to propagate new houseplants from existing ones. We will cover examples of how to start a new plant from a cutting, and how to split overgrown plants to make new ones. Participants will leave with a new potted plant provided by the lab.
Participants are also welcome to bring in overgrown plants for advice or repotting – but this is not required. All Pratt students are welcome to attend, but seats are limited.
Buy Less, Imagine More
Friday, April 5th | 12:00 – 1:00 pm Online Event
Presented by: María Viveka Goyanes
Ideas to build a more sustainable personal wardrobe and how to take care of it.
Online talk directed towards anybody that is interested in learning about sustainable practices in regard to personal style and consumer practices. From repairing to washing, from dressing to buying vintage and second-hand in a selective way.
Rain Garden Cleanup Walk
Friday, April 5th | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Starting Point: Pratt Main Gate
Presented by: Leaders in Environmental Advocacy (LEAP)
This event will focus on the significance of rain gardens in New York, shedding light on their ecological importance. Participants will actively engage in cleaning and maintaining the rain gardens situated near Pratt’s campus, fostering a hands-on understanding of sustainable practices. The event aims to attract a diverse audience, welcoming anyone interested and especially encouraging potential rain garden stewards. These stewards may choose to join a program initiated by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) dedicated to rain garden upkeep. LEAP will coordinate this event, and we are presently looking at opportunities to work with other groups.
Microclimate Discovery: Pratt Environmental Awareness Walk
Saturday, April 6th | 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Presented by: MS in SES, GCPE, School of Architecture/LEAP
Raising urban climate awareness by sensing microclimates on an urban trail.
Do you wonder why the city feels so unbearably hot in the summer? Join us on a microclimate discovery! We will guide participants’ exploration of how the diverse urban landscape and natural elements shape microclimate. By measuring these nuances and experiencing their impact on our senses, we will consider the significance of urban design to ensure comfort for both human and non-human inhabitants of our cities. The walk will start near Pratt Campus and end with a reflection at the Naval Cemetery Landscape.
Neighborhood Clean Up
Saturday, April 6th | 12:00 – 4:00 pm Meet at the Rose Garden
Presented by: Pratt Students
Pitch in to tidy up our neighborhood!
This event aims to clean up our neighborhood surrounding Pratt, making our community a better place for our neighbors, wildlife, and ourselves! Spend the afternoon walking around the neighborhood with friends cleaning up litter and restoring the green spaces we have in our urban environment.
Presented by: Kathrine M. Cays, MPS, ART-P. Kathrine is a 2023 graduate from the School of Art in the Art Therapy & Creativity Development department. She is a Community Partner with Pratt in the New York Climate Exchange working groups, K – 12 Programming and Creative Activation. Kathrine will be the facilitator of the workshop.
Experience connecting to the natural living world through imagination, working with materials from Nature to enter a feeling of well-being.
Explore a creative experience as an opportunity to bring healing to yourself and our unequaled partner in life, our Earth. You are invited to take this opportunity to listen, notice, and question while considering patterns for living a reflective life that includes hopefulness and advocacy for Nature. Participants will combine active imagination, cognition, and creativity with a community and kinship worldview to nurture awareness of the interdependence of self and the natural living world. This event is virtually accessible to people ages 12 and up.
Yoga Eco-Burnout Panel
Saturday, April 6th | 5:00 – 6:30 pm Online Event
Presenter: Certified Hatha Yoga instructor and meditation guide Gopinaath Kannabiran. Environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht
This event will explore communal yoga practice to engage with and talk about eco-burnout. We will do two in-person group yoga practice sessions and end with an online panel discussion with guest speaker, Dr. Glenn Albrecht.
People who engage with social justice-related issues and environmental concerns through their work often experience ecological burnout. It is necessary to process our eco-burnout through communal body-based practices. This event will explore communal yoga practice to engage with and talk about eco-burnout. No prior yoga experience is required. Please bring a yoga mat and bottle of water for practice. Dr. Gopinaath Kannabiran is a Certified Advanced Yoga Teacher and will lead two in-person beginner-level group yoga classes. After practice, Dr. Kannabiran will host an online panel discussion with guest speaker Dr. Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher and author of the book Earth Emotions (2019).
