Swati Piparsania
Swati Piparsania (she/her, b. Bhilai, India) is an interdisciplinary designer and educator based in New York City, currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. She holds an MFA in 3D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Furniture and Spatial Design from Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology in Bangalore, India. Swati’s practice is rooted in justice-centered community engagement, using design to amplify underrepresented voices of identities and socio-economic backgrounds. Through participatory pedagogies, equity-driven methods, and creative collaboration, she works with public school teachers, attorneys, environmental activists, and community organizers to develop design interventions that support social change.
She has participated in the Santa Fe Art Institute residency, the (Un-)Learning Place workshop at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, and the IMPACT 18 symposium at PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany. She has been a Faculty in Residence at the School of the Alternative in Black Mountain, and recently presented her work at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, School of Form, Poland and Kansas City Art Institute. As a co-curator, she has led critically engaged exhibitions such as Undoing the Border Fantasy, Public Food, Public Water and FIELD: Site in Process at Pratt Galleries. She is a grant recipient of The Laundromat Project, the Faculty Development Fund, Academic Initiative Fund and SEED Research Grant at Pratt Institute.