Pratt Institute Draws Outside the Lines with Fresh Lease

Proof that at least youthful optimism is recession-proof, art school attendance is on the rise and the Pratt Institute is expanding outside its main Brooklyn campus. 

The school has signed a five-year lease for a new 10,460-square-foot space at 248 Flushing Avenue, a 10-minute walk from its main campus, in Clinton Hill. It will convert an entire floor of the five-story warehouse building into individual studio space for its expanding M.F.A. class.

“The studios at Flushing Avenue afford our students a professional working environment in close proximity to the flourishing artist’s community that is part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and its surrounding environs,” said Donna Moran, chair of the Fine Arts Department, in a statement.

The art school has produced such notable alumni as William Van Alen and Charles Pollock, not to mention a sizable portion of the city’s more talented starving artists. It also has satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica.