PRATT SUMMIT CALLS FOR SCHOOLS OF ART AND DESIGN TO LEAD THE WAY IN SUSTAINABILITY

PALSS Organizer Debera Johnson and Bill Barrett, executive director of AICADThe Pratt Academic Leadership Summit on Sustainability brought together administrators, professors, and other officials from 33 independent colleges of art and design from the U.S. and Canada, to trade ideas about making their campuses and curricula more environmentally sustainable. They also formed a working group to leverage resources and to forge ways to collaborate between institutions. 

The conference took place at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and at Pratt’s Manhattan and Brooklyn campuses from September 29 through October 2.

“There is an obvious opportunity for higher education to lead in the area of sustainability,” said Design Management Chair Mary McBride in her Friday morning session Getting the Wheels of Change Moving. “People are looking for leadership. They are looking for guidance.”

The summit was organized, designed, and facilitated by Debera Johnson, Pratt’s academic director of sustainability. She said more than any other type of institution, art and design schools are uniquely positioned to be leaders in environmental sustainability. The group focused on three key themes; making the invisible visible, understand design as a “super power”, and linking sustainability to the viability of academic institutions.

“As artists and designers we have a native talent for the iterative process,” she said. “We understand the value of the "fail and fix" process that leads to transformative change."

Collaborating is a key driver for implementing sustainability across campuses, said Bill Barrett, conference sponsor and executive director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD).

“There is a tremendous amount of effort going on in every school,” he said. “But what is going on is at a close-to-the-ground level. There needs to be a centralized resource for all the schools so they are not re-inventing the wheel.”

At the end of the conference, the participants presented their plans to Pratt trustee Mike Pratt,  President Thomas F. Schutte, Provost Peter Barna, and School of Art and Design Dean Concetta M. Stewart. 

The four were encouraging of the cohort members’ ideas, with Stewart advising them to explore what existing structures their schools may already have in place and consider innovating new structures that would allow them to expand sustainability programs. 

The PALSS cohort plans to meet regularly via Web conference to address the action items established at the conference. Over the next year the cohort will move forward with implementing some of the key themes and publish a report they hope will serve as a model for collaboration that can be replicated by other institutions.

Johnson says participants were extremely energized. “I knew they were going to be engaged, but the passion for collaboration has far exceeded our expectations. Says Johnson,  “I can’t wait for PALSS 2011 when we will come together to celebrate what we’ve accomplished and take on the next batch of challenges.”

(Photo left) Design Management Chair Mary McBride (Photo right) L-R: Chris Chapin, Kansas City Art Institute, Robert J. Koester, Ball State University; Karl Burkheimer, Oregon College of Art and Crafts

Photos: Diana Pau