Creative Futures Academy was delighted to welcome students from the prestigious Pratt Institute to the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire on Thursday 11th March. Director Louise Allen presented on the collective creative journeys & student work delivered by the Creative Futures Academy and explored our mission to anticipate and respond to creative practitioners’ learning needs. Louise spoke about how the Creative Futures Academy is responding to the skills needed within the Irish Creative and Cultural workforce, acting as a bridge between higher education & industry. CFA is driving reform & innovation in higher education as well as building competencies for sustainable careers and embedding transversal skills.

She was joined by Seoidín O’Sullivan (NCAD Faculty) who delivers both the ‘Sustainable Exhibition Design’ and ‘Art and Ecology’ courses within our programme at the National College of Art and Design. Welcoming students to the NCAD Campus, Seoidín discussed how the CFA Course works with  ‘The Field at NCAD’ – a wild and biodiverse haven at the heart of the campus in the inner city of Dublin. The FIELD site and coursework is unique within an Irish third level context and rare in a broader European context.

Our dynamic partnership between three of Ireland’s leading Higher Education Institutions, IADT, UCD and NCAD, is changing how learners access resources, networks and expertise. We believe Ireland and the wider world needs more creative makers, thinkers, artists, designers, imaginers and dreamers. From upskilling to reskilling, to finding creative solutions and making new networks.

It is a vision we share with our colleagues in Pratt. Based in the US, Pratt Institute provides the creative leaders of tomorrow the professional knowledge and experience to make a better world. A world-class and internationally ranked college with programs in art, design, architecture, liberal arts and sciences, and information studies, Pratt offers nearly 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

The Institute’s impact expands beyond its 25-acre residential campus in Brooklyn and cutting-edge facilities at Dock 72 and the Pfizer building to a landmark building and public gallery in Manhattan, as well as an extension center, Pratt Munson College of Art and Design in Utica, New York.