Welcome to Art & Design Alumni Association
News About the High School of Art & Design

Former classmates, Evelyn Luna & Scott Chester, reunited

Evelyn Luna, 42, and Scott Chester, 41, met while attending the High School of Art & Design, though they didn't see each other for 15 years after graduation. Then on Sept. 9, 2001, they met at a party on the Chelsea Piers and rekindled their friendship. The couple had not talked much about getting married, so when Scott proposed on Feb. 17, Evelyn was quite surprised.
Read the entire story here.


A&D Holds Basketball Game in Memory of Luis Seda

Luis Seda, a popular student at Art & Design and a member of the school's basketball team, was struck by a car and killed on December 28, 2006. He was working for a vacationing uncle at a Citgo gas station when he ran across the Hutchinson River Parkway, in the Bronx, to get change for a customer. Luis would have graduated in June 2007. The Bulldogs chose to hold the game with Seward Park in tribute their lost teammate. Luis' parents were in attendance and were presented with the murals the school's students had drawn and written notes on in his memory. Read the entire story here.



1936 SIA Student, Paul Winchell, Dies at 82

Paul Winchell, who overcame the effects of polio and severe stuttering to become a ventriloquist, inventor and a cartoon voice-over artist, died on Friday, June 24, 2005, at his home in Moorpark, California. He was a young student at the School of Industrial Art when the school's principal, George K. Gombarts, helped him get on the "Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour," a popular radio talent show. His puppetry teacher at SIA, Jerod Magon, was the inspiration for his dummy, Jerry Mahoney. Read the entire story here.



1943 Alum, Henry Wolf, Dies at 80

Henry Wolf, the graphic designer and photographer who, as art director of Esquire, Harper's Bazaar and Show magazines in the 1950's and 60's, held sway over American periodical design, died on Monday, February 14, 2005, at his apartment in Manhattan. He was 80. Mr. Wolf was born in Vienna on May 23, 1925, and moved to Paris as a teenager to study art. In 1941 he immigrated to the United States and took classes at New York City's School of Industrial Art. Read the entire story here.


HS Alum Says Thanks By Donating Furniture
Thanks to the efforts of Sharon Pandolfo, a moving van pulled up to the High School of Art and Design recently and unloaded thousands of dollars worth of furniture.To learn more about the donation, and the effort to move it to the school, read the entire story here.


New York Times Story: School's Alumni and Staff Feel Its Art Emphasis Is Neglected: "as the school celebrated its 65th anniversary in October, alumni, teachers and students worried that a focus on bread-and-butter academic subjects like science and history is watering down the school's commercial art mission, even as money has not been made available to keep the number of art offerings at their traditional level.. Read the entire story here.


Hevesi Takes His Case To HS of Art & Design
From the DAILY NEWS, May 22, 2001

City Controller Alan Hevesi brought his campaign for mayor to the High School of Art and Design last month as the featured speaker at the midtown school's career day . . . click here to read more.


From a Rude Bump, a Lift for a School
First Published in the NEW YORK TIMES, December 13, 2000

About seven years ago, Sara Koffman was walking east on 57th Street toward her apartment as school was letting out. As she recalls it, a teenage boy, a student at the High School of Art and Design, pushed her to the ground. And there began one of the city's odder tales of educational philanthropy . . . click here to read more.