Building a Gallery Partnership Through Design
The Pratt Exhibitions partnership was developed to connect students with a real New York City gallery client while helping Pratt Manhattan Gallery find new ways to reach and engage the Pratt student community.
The idea was not simply to create another classroom assignment. It was to build a working relationship around an actual need and turn that relationship into an opportunity for both the gallery and the students.
From Partnership to Design Team
The relationship with Pratt Exhibitions and Pratt Manhattan Gallery was developed as a client partnership that could also create a professional experience for students in Pratt’s two-year Associate Degree Programs.
Students work as a design team for a real gallery client, responding to actual exhibitions, curatorial material, communication needs, audiences, deadlines, and feedback.
They are not designing something that might theoretically be used—they are designing for an actual partner with an actual communication goal.
Using Design to Increase Student Engagement
One of the goals of the partnership is to use student-created communication to increase awareness of Pratt Manhattan Gallery exhibitions and encourage greater student engagement with the gallery.
Students are not only an audience the gallery is trying to reach; they become participants in how the gallery communicates with that audience.
The work connects exhibition content with the visual language and media students encounter every day while giving the gallery additional ways to communicate across the Pratt community.
Instagram Reels + Pratt TV
The current collaboration focuses on short-form motion promotion for Pratt Exhibitions, including Instagram Reels developed around exhibitions at Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
This semester the partnership expands to include promotional content for Pratt TV, giving students another opportunity to translate exhibition communication across formats and audiences.
The work moves from gallery information and imagery into motion, social media, and campus screens while remaining connected to the exhibition and its communication goals.
Real Client. Real Audience. Real Work.
For students in Pratt’s two-year AOS program, the partnership creates the opportunity to gain professional client and team experience quickly.
They present ideas, respond to feedback, work within real constraints, and develop public-facing communication for an active New York City gallery.
The experience gives students work and professional context they can carry into portfolios, internships, and their first jobs while giving Pratt Exhibitions new creative approaches for reaching students and promoting its programs.