Announcement: Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street reception at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Oct. 9, 6-8pm

Please join us at Pratt Manhattan Gallery on Oct. 9, 6-8pm for a
reception for "Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street"

"Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street"
September 25-November 7, 2009
Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 West 14th Street, 2nd floor
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Public Reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday, October 9

Pratt Manhattan Gallery will present "Design Jazz: Improvisations on the
Urban Street," a two-part exhibition inspired by Deb Johnson, Pratt's
Academic Director of Sustainability, that will document both theoretical
and innovative approaches to the design and interpretation of the urban
street from September 25 to November 7, 2009. The exhibition will be
celebrated with a public reception on Friday, October 9 with live music
by Brooklyn jazz trio Big Words at 6 p.m. The exhibition and event are
free and open to the public.

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This summer, the gallery space was transformed into a design studio
where three invited guest artists met and discussed contemporary
critical design theory and design for contemporary culture and
sustaining communities. The cross-disciplinary trio consisted of Amy
Guggenheim, an artist, writer, filmmaker, and Pratt adjunct associate
professor; Mitchell Joachim, an architect, designer, and co-founder of
the non-profit philanthropic design collaborative Terreform ONE; and
Leon Reid IV, a Pratt alumnus and public works artist. Their work, in
the form of sculptural and theoretical models and films, and video
documentation of their discussions, will be on view as part of the
exhibition.

The second part of the exhibition will chronicle the design process of
nine young designers working to create street furniture for possible
inclusion as part of the Sustainable South Bronx's Greenway Project, a
community-led plan for a bicycle/pedestrian greenway along the South
Bronx waterfront on Lafayette Avenue in Hunts Point, one of New York
City's last remaining industrial areas. Sustainable South Bronx is a
community organization dedicated to environmental justice solutions
through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed
by community needs.

The exhibition will showcase the designers' process through a
documentary film on the project and installations of their work. The
film, which was completed by current Pratt students, captures the
stories of the community and chronicles the designers' ongoing dialogue
and engagement with Hunts Point community members.
"Our goal is to engage Hunts Point community members and let them drive
the decision making process," said Johnson. "There was a lot of interest
in the prospect of a design that residents could learn to fabricate
themselves so that has been the design team's focus," she added.

The designers' work represents the beginning phase of the Greenway
Project, which is slated to begin this fall. Pratt alumni George
Estreich, Zachary Feltoon, Daniel Jeffries, Jason Pfaeffle, Emily
Potter, and David Wright-along with three invited Canadian designers
Paul Dolick, Paul Kawai, and Yen Trinh-will collaborate under the
direction of project leader and Pratt professor Robert Langhorn and
project manager and Pratt alumna Kristina Drury. They will work as part
of the Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, which is part of the
Pratt Center for Sustainable Design Studies, headed by Johnson.

The project led by Johnson is in collaboration with Miquela Craytor,
executive director, Sustainable South Bronx; Kellie Terry-Sepulveda,
executive director, The Point Community Development Corporation; and
Michael G. Cluer, landscape designer with Mathews Nielson Landscape
Architecture, the firm responsible for the design of the Greenway.

Johnson, an alumna, is the Academic Director of Sustainability at Pratt
and the director of Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS).
She is also the founder and director of the Pratt Design Incubator for
Sustainable Innovation, which is part of CSDS and supports Pratt's
entrepreneurial alumni in starting businesses based in sustainable and
social enterprise.

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"Design Jazz" Trio:
Pratt film professor Amy Guggenheim's solo plays and short films have
screened internationally, with support from the New York State Council
on the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and the American Embassy. She is
founder of Global Cinemas Salon, an international program for filmmakers
from seven continents. Guggeheim, who previously served as an Information
Specialist with the United States Cultural Council, recently returned
from an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in Japan where she developed a
dramatic feature film with Japan's Koi Pictures.

Dr. Mitchell Joachim is an architect, urban designer, professor, and
co-founder of Brooklyn-based Terreform ONE and Terrefuge, a non-profit
design collaborative for urban infrastructure, building, planning, and
art. Joachim, whose specialty is in the theory and science of
ecological design, has worked at Gehry Partners, LLP, Los Angeles; Moshe
Safdie and Associates, Inc., Somerville, Mass.; Pei Cobb Freed and
Partners Architects LLP, New York; and as a researcher at MIT. Joachim
spoke at Pratt's "Design Green Now" symposium in March 2008 and was been
named to Rolling Stone Magazine's 2009 list of "100 People Who are
Changing America" and Wired Magazine's "The 2008 Smart List."

Public works artist and Pratt alumnus Leon Reid IV entered the world of
public art as a teenage graffiti writer on the streets of Cincinnati
using the street tag of "Verbs." His move to Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1998
signaled a transformation from traditional graffiti work as "Verbs" to a
more contextual and humorous style under the name "Darius Jones." His
collaboration with fellow street artist Brad Downey is featured in The
Adventures of Darius and Downey published by Thames and Hudson in 2008.
Reid's current public work under his own name has become increasingly
sensitive and relevant to the environments he inhabits.

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For more information, please call 212-647-7778 or email
exhibits@pratt.edu. More information on this and all gallery exhibitions
and events are available at www.pratt.edu/exhibitions. Follow Pratt
Manhattan Gallery on Facebook by searching "Pratt Manhattan Gallery" and
follow Pratt Exhibitions on Twitter at "PrattGallery."

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