KRAVIS CENTER AND PRATT INSTITUTE TO UNVEIL DESIGNS
FOR SCULPTURE ON KRAVIS GROUNDS
Pratt Trustee/Alumnus and Kravis Center Founder Member Bruce M. Newman brings real-world creative challenge to students for a site-specific work to be judged by a local panel of leading design, art, and community officials
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – March 13, 2015 – The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, one of the premier performing arts centers in the Southeast with a growing national and international reputation, and Pratt Institute, a renowned New York City-based college that educates creative thinkers from around the world, have partnered in a competition in which eight select Pratt students have been invited to design a site-specific donor recognition sculpture for the Kravis Center.
Six art and design leaders and one elected official will serve as judges for the Kravis Center and Pratt Institute Sculpture Competition, which will culminate in an invitation-only awards ceremony and dinner hosted by the Kravis Center. The jury includes Norton Museum of Art Director and CEO Hope Alswang, Palm Beach County Cultural Council President and CEO Rena Blades, former Tiffany & Co. Design Director John Loring, City of West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, landscape architect Mario Nievera, Executive Vice President of D Stephenson Construction, Inc., Kravis Center board member and Pratt alumnus Joseph Sanches and interior designer Scott Snyder.
The partnership and creative vision behind the Kravis Center and Pratt Institute Sculpture Competition was conceived by Pratt Institute Trustee/Alumnus and Kravis Center Founder Member Bruce M. Newman, a former antiques gallery owner and well-known collector who authored two books, “Fantasy Furniture” (Rizzoli, 1989) and “Don’t Come Back Until You Find It” (Beaufort, 2006). Designs will be presented by the students in person in West Palm Beach on April 7.
“The partnership between the Kravis Center and Pratt Institute is a unique opportunity for Pratt’s talented students to channel their creativity into designs for a site-specific piece of art,” said Newman. “The competition provides students with access to a distinguished performing arts organization where they can apply 21st century technologies to address real-world design challenges,” he added.
A multidisciplinary group of Pratt industrial design and architecture students was selected to participate in the competition, which began in fall 2014. Guided by Associate Industrial Design Professor Robert Langhorn, the students were invited by the Kravis Center to incorporate lighting and seating elements into their artistic designs, and to find compelling ways to honor donors to the Center’s Helen K. Persson Society which recognizes donors to the Center’s Permanently Restricted Endowment Fund. The student design proposals take inspiration from the Kravis Center site and the various performances regularly featured at the venue. Collectively, the projects include a creative blend of traditional and digital technology and fabrication techniques.
The judges will be able to view each design at an exclusive breakfast on April 7. The students will be recognized at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and Pratt Institute Sculpture Competition Awards Ceremony.
“At the Kravis Center, we believe in supporting the next generation of artists across every discipline,” said Kravis Center CEO Judith A. Mitchell. “Partnering with Pratt Institute for the sculpture competition underscores Kravis Center’s commitment to supporting the world of art beyond live performance, and showcases our mission to provide arts education to our community. For more than 20 years, the Kravis Center has helped students of all ages fuel their imaginations and expand their lives through comprehensive arts education programs such as this one with the prestigious Pratt Institute. We look forward to seeing the proposals by these gifted students, and we are grateful to the members of this judging panel for lending their expertise and supporting the arts in our region.”
Since opening in 1992, the Kravis Center has provided access to the performing arts for approximately two million schoolchildren. Last year alone, the nonprofit Kravis Center provided comprehensive arts education programs to nearly 65,000 children from Palm Beach, Broward, Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee Counties through the its S*T*A*R (Students and Teachers Arts Resource) Series. In addition, more than 3,000 adults attended ArtSmart continuing education classes and lectures – with topics ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Cuban folklore music.