Fire at Pratt Institute Leaves Students Concerned about the Future

Last Friday around 2 a.m., fire blazed through two floors at the Pratt Institute’s historical Main Building, permanently destroying artwork, supplies, and personal items. It is possible that the fire resulted from malfunctioned electrical wires on the sixth floor, according to the New York City Fire Department. However, the investigation is ongoing and no official cause has been determined.

The fifth and sixth floors housed studio and classroom spaces for the fine arts students, and could remain inaccessible for up to a year while the Main Building is renovated for liabilities and insurance.

“Basically half of everything that we owned [was lost],” fine arts student Milo Wissig said. “We were practically living in our studios.”

But the unexpected loss accounts for more than just face value of tangible items.

“For the seniors it’s like we lost the entire year, not just a semester,” Wissig said.
Personal and family possessions, senior thesis projects, and a semester and a half of work fell victim to the fire.

Maria de Los Angeles is another senior whose work was destroyed in the fire.

“I sell my work in the summers and I have no work left to sell,” she told the Free Press.

Many students are still unaware of what exactly they have lost or when they will have access to their possessions still left in the building. Some students speculated that the content of most lockers could be salvageable.

“Most of our supplies are probably fine, but we don’t have them and we need to get started working A.S.A.P.,” fine arts junior Joey Regan said.

The Pratt administration now has to accommodate students who lost their supplies. Though professors have been sending students emails of reassurance, junior painter Rachael Clarke Hendel expressed concern about the lack of information from administrators.

“Everything is slightly through rumors, everything is vague,” she said. “We don’t really know what’s going on.”

The fine arts department held a meeting at the school’s Student Union last Monday to introduce a plan that will use half of the gymnasium for studio and classroom space, while the other half remains designated to sports.

This plan poses many problems for students: the gym is simply not equipped for painting and lacks natural lighting, sinks, and proper disposal units for turpenoid, all of which ensure a safe and healthy working environment.

“They’re saying that if it goes well, it will be permanent,” Hendel said. “That’s what we have a problem with.”

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For current seniors, the sixth floor studios were a staple in the identity of the fine arts department, and the consequences of not having that space will be felt for the rest of the academic year. They fear the lack of space may cause problems for rising upperclassmen. With sub-par facilities, students feel that their tuition costs are unjustifiable.

“We’re paying for facilities, because as painters we depend solely on those facilities,” Hendel explained.

Sophomores and juniors now face an uncertain future at Pratt, and students are worried that the upcoming summer vacation will make it more difficult for their voices to be heard by the administration.

De Los Angeles expressed concern for the future of Pratt.

“We don’t want to leave Pratt without making sure that everyone else is going to be okay,” she said.

Director of BFA Fine Arts at Parsons, Anthony Aziz, heard about the fire and immediately began reaching out to his colleagues at Pratt.

“It wasn’t a direct hit for us, but it’s an extension and one we need to remember to have empathy for,” he said.

Realizing the importance of making a connection with the neighboring art school, Aziz put seniors at Parsons in contact with seniors at Pratt to facilitate a supportive and helpful relationship.

“Pratt and Parsons form a singular community,” he said. “We are a part of the same landscape and we need to respond in ways that are appropriate to support each other.”

Robert Hickerson, fine arts senior at Parsons and co-founder of NRM Gallery, put this tragedy into perspective.

“Their painting studios are structured very much like our fine arts studios, and to think if that were to no longer exist, to think of all the work that would be lost, it would be devastating,” he said.

Hickerson is working to collect donated work to auction off at the NRM Gallery space to raise money for affected Pratt students. The event will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 7 at 25 East 13th street on the fourth and fifth floors. Proceeds will be donated to Pratt Institute’s Main Fire Recovery Fund to assist students in the Department of Fine Arts who were affected by the recent fire.