#ParsonsReunion
Designers, techies, fashionistas, and more descended upon The New School last month with a similar purpose in mind—all were headed to the annual Parsons Reunion. Nearly 400 alumni and guests attended the event meant to celebrate the talent and creativity of Parsons graduates. Highlights included a career-focused panel of alumni speakers, a Parsons archive open house, a reception, the opening of an alumni exhibition, and an exclusive tour of the soon-to-be-opened University Center.
The alumni panel, entitled “Scaling Up: Parsons Entrepreneurs on Growing a Business,” featured Aimee Kestenberg, BFA Integrated Design ’10, Christiane Lemieux, BFA Fashion Design ’07, Bradford Shellhammer, AAS Fashion Design ’08, and Daniel Stark, BFA Communication Design ’93. They discussed starting and scaling their own businesses and gave advice on navigating through a constantly evolving economy. Watch a replay of the discussion here.
The third annual Alumni Exhibition asked entrants to consider color (broadly or narrowly defined) and garnered close to 600 submissions from 14 countries. Nearly 100 works by alumni spanning six decades were featured in the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries. These pieces reflected the creative talents of Parsons graduates from more than 20 areas of study, including graphic design and illustration, interior design, fashion design, fine arts, interactive design, photography, and product design. For the first time this year, a student—Jenny Werbell, third year MFA in Interior Design and Lighting Design—designed the exhibition.
Gallery visitors and passers by on Fifth Avenue could not have missed one of the exhibition highlights, a striking gown in bright pink and yellow by Prabal Gurung, Fashion Design’01. It was custom made for New School for Public Engagement alumna Elettra Wiedemann ’07, who wore it to the 2013 Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.