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Join Saloni Shrestha, Parsons AAS Fashion Design alum, founder of AGAATI, and co-founder of Salvie Design Atelier in Delhi, for a conversation on the practical and ethical realities of artisan-based production. Drawing on years spent building artisan partnerships and managing atelier-based manufacturing for independent labels — from product development through sampling and production — Saloni's work lives at the intersection of design, craft, and ethical small-batch production.This session offers students a grounded, honest look at what it actually takes to design and produce with artisans and small ateliers, including:- Understanding artisan ecosystems and craft contexts- Translating design concepts into handcrafted production- Communication between designers and makers- Sampling and small-batch production workflows- Timelines, costing, and quality expectations- Ethical collaboration and long-term partnership buildingAs craft-based production becomes increasingly central to sustainable and responsible fashion, this talk offers a realistic and respectful framework for students looking to engage with these ways of working.*This event is open only to the The New Schoolcommunity.

Creativity is a powerful, renewable resource, vital for addressing complex challenges and preserving cultural heritage. Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in this journey, offering tools and insights that expand our potential and unlock previously unimaginable possibilities.This talk shows how work with AI applied to creativity represents an exciting frontier where science and human imagination converge. Foundational disciplines such as physics, mathematics, and statistics provide the tools to model complex systems, identify patterns, and generate novel solutions, all of which are essential for advancing creativity in meaningful ways. AI, supported by these scientific principles, becomes not just a collaborator but a powerful enabler that amplifies our ability to innovate, solve problems, and express ourselves.The work presented is part of a broader research initiative by the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome, where an open and transdisciplinary approach brings together artificial intelligence, information systems, complex systems, and urban studies to explore three interconnected challenges faced by contemporary society: creating healthier and more transparent information environments, developing more sustainable cities, and understanding how AI can expand human capabilities.Denise Lanzieri conducts research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, statistical modeling, and the study of complex systems. After completing a PhD in astrophysics at the CosmoStat Laboratory of CEA Paris-Saclay, where she worked on observational cosmology, Deep Learning, and high-dimensional inference techniques, she shifted her research toward new areas related to Augmented Creativity. She is currently a member of the Augmented Creativity team at Sony Computer Science Laboratories – Rome (Sony CSL - Rome), where she explores the potential of artificial intelligence to understand the complexity of open-ended systems and the processes through which new ideas emerge. Her work connects tools developed for the study of the universe with new questions about creativity, the generation of novelty, and human–machine collaboration, while maintaining a strong interest in the integration of physical models and Machine Learning approaches. This talk explores the frontier where AI, science and human imagination converge. Foundational disciplines such as physics, mathematics, and statistics provide the tools to model complex systems, identify patterns, and generate novel solutions, all of which are essential for advancing creativity in meaningful ways. AI, supported by these scientific principles, becomes not just a collaborator but a powerful enabler that amplifies our ability to innovate, solve problems, and express ourselves.Denise Lanzieri holds a PhD in astrophysics at the CosmoStat Laboratory of CEA Paris-Saclay, where she worked on observational cosmology, Deep Learning, and high-dimensional inference techniques. She is currently a member of the Augmented Creativity team at Sony Computer Science Laboratories - Rome, where she explores the potential of artificial intelligence to understand the complexity of open-ended systems and the processes through which new ideas emerge.

Join Laura Gardner and Francesca Granata in a conversation exploring fashion publishing as a critical practice through their recent books Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue (Intellect) and Marginal Fashion Publishing: Tactics, Practices, Market Forces (Bloomsbury). Both Francesca and Laura are publishers of small-press imprints, and their books explore practices and histories of small-scale models of publishing, critical writing, and creative production in the margins of fashion’s industrial forces.Together, they will explore the possibilities of small press fashion publishing as a collaborative, critical praxis, in the context of the fashion media landscape today.

Grant Mooney (born 1990 in Seattle, Washington) lives and works in New York. He studied art at Central Saint Martins College in London and at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Mooney’s work was part of the Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and has been featured in solo exhibitions at Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany (2026), Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK (2025), Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (2024), Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis (2024), Progetto, Lecce, Italy (2023), Miguel Abreu Gallery (2022/2023), Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco (2023 & 2019), Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin (2021), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2017), as part of the SECA Art Awards at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017), and at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2015). His work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2022), at the ICA, Los Angeles (2021), at the Yale Union, Portland (2020), at the Stadtgalerie Bern (2020), at the SculptureCenter, New York (2020), Fondation D’entreprise Ricard, Paris (2017), Kunst-Werke Berlin (2017), White Flag Project Library, St. Louis (2016) and Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2016). Part of the Fine Arts Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Zoom linkProcess as Curation: The Immigrant Artist Biennial is a moderated conversation with the Directors of The Immigrant Artist Biennial, Katya Grokhovsky and Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, about the process of organizing, leading and curating the 2026 Edition: Identity Card, followed by Q&A. The directors will also explore some material from the biennial.For more information on Identity Card, please visit: https://www.theimmigrantartistbiennial.com/about-2026Anna Mikaela Ekstrand is a feminist interdependent curator, writer, and researcher based in New York City, who mediates art through writing, curating, and lecturing. She is editor-in-chief and founder of Cultbytes. Her latest books are Assuming Asymmetries: Conversations on Curating Public Art Projects of the 1980s and 1990s and Curating Beyond the Mainstream.Katya Grokhovsky is a Ukrainian-born, NYC-based artist, educator, curator and Founding Director of The Immigrant Artist Biennial. She has received numerous residencies, including the 2025/26 Keyholder Residency at Lower East Side Printshop, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Residency, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program, the 2024/25 Padnos Distinguished Artist in Residence at Grand Valley State University, The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Visiting Artist Residency at UC Davis, Windgate Artist in Residence at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, Ekard Artist in Residence at Bucknell University, the MAD Museum Studio Program, Sculpture Space, Ox-Bow School of Art, Wassaic Project, Santa Fe Art Institute, The Watermill Center and more. Grokhovsky has been awarded Brooklyn Arts Council Grants, the FST StudioProjects Fund, the New American Fellowship, and other honors. She has curated numerous exhibitions and performances at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, EFA Project Space, Greenwood Cemetery, PS122 Gallery, among others. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne), and a BA (Honors) in Fashion from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.Brittnay L. Proctor is a writer, researcher, and emerging curator of art; sound/visual culture, performance, and popular culture at the nexus of blackness, gender, and sexuality. She is Assistant Professor of Race and Media in the MA Media Studies program at Parsons School of Design at The New School (NY, NY) and author of Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden (Bloomsbury Press: 33 1/3 Series, 2022).About the MA, Media Studies Program https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/ma-media-studies/)
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