Records of the School of Art and Design

The School of Art and Design was one of the original departments at Pratt Institute during its first academic year in 1887. The first October class had only 12 enrolled students – a number that grew to several hundred in just four months.

Originally formed with the goal of training artists to make practical use of their skills, the courses focused on three areas of study: construction (drawing as applied in industrial construction and the making of objects), representation (drawing as applied in representing the appearance of objects and of nature) and decoration (drawing as applied in ornamentation). Core classes for the three aforementioned divisions included freehand, mechanical and architectural drawing, color, clay modeling design and woodcarving.

In 1890, the department was divided into two – the Art Department and Mechanical Arts Department. The former remained focused on the decorative and fine arts, while the latter became a trade school of its own. The departments underwent further rearranging in 1893, when the Art Department became the Department of Industrial and Fine Arts. Courses that did not fit this description were moved to the Department of Science and Technology. Only one year later was the Department of Industrial and Fine Arts changed once again to the Department of Fine Arts.

In 1905, the art department became the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, presumably to eliminate any misconceptions regarding the focus of the department. The name was changed again in 1941 to The Art School – which marked the beginning of a three decade-long evolution that resulted in the school developing into a more progressive arts program. Certificate programs were eliminated completely by 1953, and a more sophisticated master’s program was established. In 1968, the School of Art and Design was given its final name.

Over the decades, several departments moved both to and from the School of Art and Design. The fashion department grew out of sewing and design classes originally offered by the School of Home Economics, as did the interior design department. Though the schools at Pratt Institute have been anything but stagnant, the School of Art and Design remained structurally much the same until 2014. As part of Pratt’s strategic plan for 2012-2017, the school was divided in two, resulting in the School of Art and School of Design.