The ongoing pandemic has changed everything, from the way we learn and create to how we think about the future. At Pratt Institute, students have used their creativity to adapt to these shifts, while addressing isolation, grief, uncertainty, hope, and community into their work. Eight of these students shared how their processes evolved over the past year and what they will carry forward into their future practices.
Before she arrived at Pratt, Delaney Bianca Morris, MS Urban Placemaking & Management ’20; MS Sustainable Environmental Systems ’21, was traveling across the country to perform with community samba groups and produce large-scale events like parades and music festivals. The lockdown measures and limits on in-person gatherings caused her to reevaluate how the arts and entertainment could be presented in public space.
“I shifted gears on my final Demonstration of Professional Competence and decided to highlight how the arts and creative placemaking had come alive in this new virtual reality,” she said, an approach that included everything from online music performances to the cross-collaboration between artists on Zoom. She also enrolled in another Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) program—Sustainable Environmental Systems—to position her work at the intersection of culture, urban planning, and climate change.
