Pratt Institute Announces Performance Studies MFA Thesis Festival

Pratt Institute's Performance and Performance Studies program is pleased to announce its annual MFA thesis festival showcasing work from the 13 members of the graduating class of 2019. The festival includes performance art, installation, moving image art, choreography, theater, ritual-based work, and social practice by MFA candidates. The festival will take place on March 29 and 30 at Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002.

Artists featured are: Nicholson Billey, Jiang Feng, Renae Michelle Govinda, Catherine James, Waqia Kareem, Mary Mulford, Yeha Park, Mora-Amina Parker, Sarah Olivia Shulman, Dana Sumner-Pritchard, Victor Spielberg Verdejo, Jaguar Mary X, and Shannon Yu. Individual pieces in the festival engage themes of subjection/objection, Indigenous resurgence, Latinx performance and translation, the Black Trans* Atlantic, public space affects, mutability and subsistence, comedy and pain, toxic proliferation, absurdity, space adventures, sex and love, cathexis and catharsis, and avatar embodiment. It's been a thrill and an honor to work with these exciting artists. Please join us to celebrate their work, says Jennifer Miller, coordinator of the graduate program.

Pratt Institute's MFA in Performance and Performance Studies degree offers innovative, interdisciplinary training in the fields of performance studies and performance practice in one program. Through two years of graduate study, MFA candidates deepen their performance and art making practice, engage critical inquiry and theory, practice pedagogy, and apply community-based methodologies. This is a small and intensive program designed for students to experience the vibrant exchange across practice and theory, individualize their graduate study, and draw on the rich performance and cultural worlds of Brooklyn and New York City. Current program faculty include: Jennifer Miller, Tracie Morris, David Thomson, Karin Shankar, Julia Steinmetz, Jenny Romaine, Aliza Shvarts, Ebony Noelle Golden, and Layla Zami.

Founded in 1887, Pratt Institute is a global leader in higher education dedicated to preparing its 4,600 undergraduate and graduate students for successful careers in art, design, architecture, information and library science, and liberal arts and sciences. Located in a cultural hub with historic campuses in Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as a campus in Utica, New York (PrattMWP College of Art and Design), Pratt has an esteemed faculty of accomplished professionals and scholars who challenge their talented students to transform their passion into meaningful expression. Pratt's programs are consistently ranked among the best in the country, and its faculty and alumni include the most renowned artists, designers, and scholars in their fields.