Announcing the 2025 Rowena Award to Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn

Celebrating design excellence, the 35th Rowena Awards this year honor two of the world’s most influential design figures. The award promotes the educational pedagogy Rowena Reed Kostellow developed at Pratt. Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn are critics, curators, and public advocates of the power of design ideas and opportunity.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future, co-written by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli, focuses on four themes: Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology. The Phaidon book presents designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. For the ongoing investigation of design, they co-founded the podcast and Instagram platform Design Emergency.

Alice Rawsthorn is a British design critic and author. Her books include Design as an Attitude and Hello World: Where Design Meets Life. Her weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade.

Paola Antonelli is Senior Curator of Architecture & Design and Director of Research & Development at The Museum of Modern Art. Besides curating exhibitions, she also produces a renowned public series, the MoMA R&D Salons, that demonstrates the potential of museums as R&D departments for society.

Award Ceremony Details:
‍Friday, October 24th, 5:30–7:30 pm
MillerKnoll Showroom
251 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 11010

The event will also celebrate this year’s student Rowena Prize winners: Jean Kuo (Graduate), Josie Johnson (Senior), Keon Vafaee (Junior), and Robert Sutherland (Sophomore)

Since 1990, the Rowena Group has awarded thousands of dollars in cash and scholarships, encouraging students’ commitment to excellence. Paola and Alice join the other 35 champions of the principles of visual relationships who received the award. See the full winners list.