Check out some photos, outcomes, and process work from the amazing opening of Carnival Hybrids: A Cross-Cultural Design Collaboration in the University Center!
Carnival Hybrids: A Cross-Cultural Design Collaboration explores cultural hybridity through collaborative, practice-based design. Guided by Parsons First Year faculty member Gigi Polo, co-teachers Pamela Roskin (also First Year faculty) and Katia Ríos, and advisor Luis Rivas, Parsons students in New York collaborated with students from Chavón, La Escuela de Diseño (Dominican Republic), to explore two rich Carnival cultures and traditions. Carnival, whether in New Orleans’s Mardi Gras or in the Dominican Republic, is a living archive of cultural identity, resistance, and celebration. Both traditions have African, Indigenous, and European roots, yet each has developed unique aesthetics, practices, and meanings. Students explore these rich traditions through a range of creative projects of their own. On display will be garments, an interactive timeline, graphics, an illustration, and an animated film. *The project has been selected to participate in the 2026 Dominican Carnival parades across the country.
Process photos:
