LEGENDS Ticket Sales Top $400,000, all Proceeds Fund Student Scholarships

More than 300 guests attended Legends 2011, Pratt’s largest annual scholarship benefit, which this year raised over $400,000 through ticket sales. The event at 7 World Trade Center in Manhattan on November 1 honored artist and musician Laurie Anderson; interior designer, furniture designer, and artist Juan Montoya; and artist, filmmaker, and photographer William Wegman.    

Wegman, best known for his photographs of Weimaraner dogs, received his Legends Award from Museum of Modern Art President Emeritus Agnes Gund.

Laurie Anderson was presented with her award by friend and author Salman Rushdie, who said Anderson reminds him of the "Hindu deity Shiva Nataraja, the multi-armed lord of the dance, holding various instruments in her many hands." 

Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Digest Margaret Russell introduced longtime Pratt supporter Juan Montoya who said: "To me, receiving the Pratt Legends Award is like receiving the Academy Award."  

In addition, guests were able to experience interactive digital projections created by Department of Digital Arts students.

The pieces were designed and installed by Craig McCahill (Undergraduate Digital Arts, Class of 2012) and Piyatas Tantanapornchai (Graduate Digital Arts, Class of 2013).

Both pieces were activated by motion detectors, which were assembled in the social spaces and aimed at the crowds.

In the cocktail reception area was Tantanapornchai’s installation Watch Your Step, which mounted flocks of birds that shifted their motion depending on the movements of nearby attendees.

In the dessert reception area was McCahill’s interactive canvas combining three-dimensional texturized shapes with colorful two-dimensional overlays. The three-dimensional shapes appeared to be constantly rotating in black space as a result of users’ movements, which also activated several different “hot-spot” areas.

The faculty advisors on the projects were Professor Peter Mackey and Assistant Professor Liubo Borissov.

Special guests included: Kurt Andersen, Pratt trustee, critically acclaimed author, and host of Studio 360; Kenneth P. Browne, Pratt alumnus and partner at Urban Development Partners; Amy Cappellazzo, Pratt trustee and alumna and chairman of post-war and contemporary development at Christie's;
 Anne Carson, poet, essayist, translator, and professor; 
Juliana Curran Terian, Pratt trustee and chair of the Rallye Group;
 Steven Holl, architect;
 James D. Kuhn, Pratt trustee, and wife Marjorie Kuhn; Young Jean Lee, playwright and director; 
Leonard Lopate, host of The Leonard Lopate Show;
 Topaz Page-Green, model;
 Mike Pratt, Pratt board of trustees chair, and wife Carol Pratt; Thomas F. Schutte, Pratt president, and wife Tess Schutte; Robert Siegel, architect.

Text: Amy Aronoff
Video: Corey Richardson and Jonathan Weitz