Pratt Institute | Information | Alumna Sarah Grace Holcomb Prospects Large Faculty Learners to Achievement as Section of Pratt’s Vibrant Art & Structure Instruction Community

Posted on Monday, June 14, 2021

Brooklyn large university pupils Brianna Blue and Aleksandra Kwiecień, who have been regarded for their unique work with two of the optimum honors in the 2021 Scholastic Artwork & Writing Awards, are students of the identical teacher: alumna and former Pratt Institute faculty member Sarah Grace Holcomb, MS Art and Structure Training ’12. Blue, who won the Gold Medal Portfolio, is also a 2021 alumna of the Pratt Younger Students (PYS) plan and is preparing to attend Pratt in the tumble as one of the inaugural recipients of the 4-calendar year Pratt President’s Wallace Augustus Rayfield Scholarship. Close to 230,000 functions from college students in each state were being entered into this year’s awards and only eight college students received Gold Medal Portfolio in Artwork.


Sarah Grace Holcomb (considerably appropriate) with her pupils at Edward R. Murrow Superior College in Brooklyn (courtesy Sarah Grace Holcomb)

Brooklyn high faculty college students Brianna Blue and Aleksandra Kwiecień, who have been regarded for their distinctive perform with two of the greatest honors in the 2021 Scholastic Art & Producing Awards, are learners of the identical instructor: alumna and previous Pratt Institute school member Sarah Grace Holcomb, MS Artwork and Style Education and learning ’12. Blue, who gained the Gold Medal Portfolio, is also a 2021 alumna of the Pratt Younger Scholars (PYS) application and is preparing to attend Pratt in the fall as a person of the inaugural recipients of the 4-yr Pratt President’s Wallace Augustus Rayfield Scholarship. All around 230,000 works from college students in each individual state ended up entered into this year’s awards and only 8 learners received Gold Medal Portfolio in Artwork. 

The Scholastic Art & Crafting Awards are introduced by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and were commenced in 1923. The prestigious application has each year celebrated some of the most creative teenagers in the United States with around 100 literary and visual arts experts serving as judges this 12 months, basing their conclusions on originality, technical talent, and the emergence of a personal voice or eyesight. A portray by Blue depicting a poignant scene of family turmoil and a colorful embroidered portrait by Kwiecień were amongst the performs a short while ago on watch in the Scholastic Art & Composing Awards: New York City Regional Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with their artwork even now readily available to look at on-line.


Brianna Blue’s painting “The System” which was involved in the ‘Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: New York City Regional Exhibition’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork

As noted by Bklyner, Blue and Kwiecień—who won the Silver Medal with Distinction Portfolio—were portion of the identical senior portfolio course led by Holcomb, a visual arts instructor at Edward R. Murrow Higher Faculty in Midwood. Holcomb has been educating at Edward R. Murrow Higher Faculty due to the fact 2012, setting up even though she was even now ending her graduate diploma at Pratt, and has worked at Pratt as an Artwork and Design and style Training (ADE) school member. She beforehand been given the Scholastic Art & Composing Nationwide Gold Medal Excellence in Teaching award in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. She was even more regarded in the 2021 awards and is eligible for an artist’s residency by way of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. 

“By considerably my most significant activities in the Pratt ADE application were being these with faculty,” Holcomb said. “The overall department is thoughtful, experienced, and empathetic. I uncovered so a lot from the way the college instructs their personal lessons and lots of are practicing artists. I try out to replicate this knowledge for my superior faculty learners and I unquestionably imagine it has a enormous impression on the way they solution their studio practice at such a young age.”

The get the job done of Holcomb and her learners is just one case in point of how Pratt has fostered resourceful instruction as a result of its ADE division as well as the Middle for Artwork, Style, and Community Engagement K-12 which runs the 3-calendar year PYS plan for extremely determined New York City community large university students. 

“Pratt’s Office of Artwork and Structure Schooling has a extended historical past of graduating teachers who go on to make a significant contribution to the high quality of instruction in art and layout in New York Town community colleges,” explained ADE Chair Aileen Wilson. “Sarah’s achievements as an educator, her commitment to general public instruction and to Murrow, and the effects she has on the youthful people she teaches is outstanding.”

ADE has a dynamic network of graduates who are accredited instructors in the visual arts. A lot of get the job done in New York Metropolis community universities and actively interact with the Pratt campus neighborhood. Just about every 12 months, ADE school get the job done with these alumni to host student teachers in their colleges so they can fulfill their pupil training prerequisites under their advice. In switch, these alumni and student academics stimulate their K-12 students to see by themselves in inventive occupations. Several go on to show up at campus programs these kinds of as Pratt’s Saturday Art School and PYS. 

Brianna Blue is a single of 17 college students who concluded the PYS system this calendar year, all of whom will be heading on to school in the tumble, with Blue staying 1 of 16 graduating PYS who ended up approved to Pratt. Alongside with the 2021 ADE graduates now getting into the specialist stage of their occupations as lecturers, these associates of the Pratt local community demonstrate how sharing innovative learning experiences from a single era to the up coming empowers the thinkers and makers who will form the potential.

“In collaboration with school from the School of Art, the School of Architecture, and Basis, the Pratt Youthful Students program creates a robust pipeline for gifted, determined, imaginative youth to greater training,” mentioned Daniel Bergman, director of the Middle for Artwork, Design and Group Engagement K-12. “We are especially happy that so many of the youth we serve have made the decision to even further their training at Pratt. “We simply cannot wait to see what accolades Brianna and her fellow PYS alumni collect in the years to come”.