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‘Slave’ doll embroils Pratt

By Harry Cheadle
for The Brooklyn Paper
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This “slave doll” — complete with a chain around her neck — through Pratt Institute’s Cinton Hill campus into turmoil after it appeared last month. Now the artist and others have been called into the president’s office.

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A student art project with racial overtones was hastily taken down from the walls of Pratt Institute — and now the art and design school’s administration is scrambling to respond to it.

The project consisted of a black doll and a clay figure with chains wrapped around their necks and labels reading, “Slave for Sale” and “Special offer: Buy one, get babies free.”

The piece was dated March 25, 1807 — 201 years to the day from when the unsigned piece was installed.

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Campus security took it down within hours of its installation — but news of the controversial work started trickling out of the security office.

Eventually, Pratt President Thomas Schutte formed a committee to investigate the matter, which met for the first time on Friday, April 25, four weeks after the incident.

The identity of the students is unknown, but a source told The Brooklyn Paper that the artwork was created in response to an assignment given by a teacher.

It is unclear whether or not the piece got a passing grade.

Correction

May 1, 2008; 3:02 pm — Pratt Institute President Thomas Schutte did not, in fact, meet with a committee last Friday. Rather, he was scheduled to meet with a professor with knowledge of the matter individually on Friday, May 2. A spokesperson for Pratt said the institute had not yet determined whether the work was student-made.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

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