Pratt Celebrates 125 Years of the Wall Street Journal

Michael Levin (MFA, ‘15) will create an installation in the Dow Jones office in NY. Photo by Peter Tannenbaum.

At

Pratt Institute

’s Pratt Manhattan Gallery, students, faculty members, and members of the media gathered for “Pratt Celebrates 125 Years of the Wall Street Journal,” featured in the

July issue

of

Interior Design.

To commemorate the birthday for the largest-circulation newspaper in the U.S., the exhibition of archival material as well as student artwork runs through August 21. Eleven students from across the school’s varied disciplines, from jewelry design to photography, were chosen to contribute works. The big attraction? One student work would be chosen for permanent installation at the

Dow Jones

corporate office in New York at the end of the gallery show.

Last week, each student presented their works for voting by everyone from the journal’s executive editor Almar Latour to Pratt student peers. Michael Levin (MFA, ‘15) ended up taking the prize with his piece

Section 8.

As inspiration, Levin asked his family to share their opinions of the famous publication. He then took their words and reconfigured them into interpretations of the classic WSJ hedcut. Once on display in the Dow Jones offices, the four portraits will serve as a reminder of the paper’s daily readers.

Additionally, two runners-up were given special recognition. Saana Hellsten (MFA Communications Design, ‘15) created a 3-D sculpture of wooden pegs forming a hedcut, and Saul Schister (BFA, ‘14) designed a handmade modern printing press.

Levin’s winning piece

, Section 8,

was a play on the classic WSJ hedcut.

Schister’s handmade printing press, in aluminum, acetal, steel, and brass, churned out custom prints.

Hellsten’s piece,

Wood,

also riffed on the hedcut, incorporating over 6,000 pegs to form a staffer of the WSJ.