Please donate work for the Parsons benefit auction! The NRM Gallery is looking for any photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, or unique object to auction off, from students and faculty alike, with the proceeds going to to Pratt Institute’s Main Fire Recovery Fund to assist students in the Department of Fine Arts. This benefit will also coincide with an exhibition of Pratt student’s work on Thursday, March 7th from 6-9pm.

The fire that blazed through two floors at the Pratt Institute’s historical Main Building a few weeks ago, permanently destroying artwork, supplies, and personal items, has ignited an outpouring of support from empathetic students and faculty here at Parsons. Anthony Aziz, Director of the BFA Fine Arts program, 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.”

Last week, Aziz, fine arts faculty Donald Pocaro and students rallied together to box up a ton of art supplies to donate to the Pratt students (photos below).

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.

The auction on Thursday needs your help! Please donate by tomorrow, before 9pm, in studios 23 or 30 on the fine arts floor (4th fl.) of 25 E.13th Street, and come support the auction and Pratt exhibition! 

To read more about the fire at Pratt, please check out the New School Free Press article.