Art and Engineering: Stuy Seniors Showcase Their Art At Pratt University

Several of art teacher Leslie Bernstein's 3D Art and Technology students showcased their artwork at the “Exhibiting Education: 3D Explorations” exhibit at the Pratt Institute, which ran from February 14 to April 18.

Students were given the opportunity to display their work at this exhibition because of Bernstein's previous connections with the university. “I went to Pratt for graduate school, and I had a student teacher in the graduate art education program,” Bernstein said. “The people who ran the program were looking at pictures of the students’ work here [at Stuyvesant] and liked what they were seeing. They asked us if we wanted to have a show there.”

Bernstein and her student teacher, Natasha Seng, took on the role of selecting which assignments would be featured at the exhibit. “We selected the three projects that we thought were the most successful and would show well [at the gallery],” Bernstein said. “It wasn’t a democracy,” she continued, laughing.

The first project that was showcased at the exhibit was a sculpture composed of a preselected group of mandatory materials—clay, wood, plaster, recyclables, watercolors, acrylics and gouache. “[The students] could not work with anything else, so they had to be creative with materials and use them in ways they never used them before,” Bernstein mentioned. For example, not only was wood glue used for gluing materials down, but it was also allowed students to accent and decorate their sculptures.

The second project selected for the exhibition was derived from an assignment that Seng gave out. Students made three different abstract sculptures using paper and foam, and finished the sculptures with a coat of paint.

The third project was the annual book-making assignment that Bernstein is famous for. “[My students] had to make books more three-dimensional than your everyday book is. A lot of people did pop-up books, some people did carousel or star books, and one person created a book that opened up to 360 degrees,” Bernstein said.

Throughout the exhibit and class, Bernstein aimed to intertwine art and technology in her students’ chosen projects. Woodworking, 3D printing, and computer-based applications were incorporated into many of the projects. “A lot of what we do is paper engineering, such as trying to make structures stand with simple materials,” Bernstein said. “A lot of students don’t realize that that’s engineering, but that’s the same thought process used in engineering as well.”

For students eager to showcase their art, Bernstein believes that additional collaborations with Pratt institute may arise in the future, especially because she is often astonished by the work students produce in her class. “Everybody thinks of Stuyvesant as a bunch of math and science students,” she said. “It’s unbelievable the amount of artistic talent that you will find [at Stuyvesant]. I always say to friends, ‘we have a bunch of little Da Vinci's running around here.’”