Pratt to Honor Laurie Anderson, Juan Montoya, and William Wegman with Legends Award

Author Salman Rushdie, Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief Margaret Russell, and MoMA President Emerita Agnes Gund to present awards at November 1 gala

 L to R: Laurie Anderson, Juan Montoya, and William Wegman

Pratt will honor artist and musician Laurie Anderson; interior designer, furniture designer, and artist Juan Montoya; and artist, filmmaker, and photographer William Wegman at Legends, Pratt’s largest annual scholarship benefit. 

Legends 2011 takes place Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street in Manhattan.

The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6 PM and be followed by a 7 PM dinner and awards ceremony, then will conclude with a dessert reception and a performance by Laurie Anderson. Click here to buy tickets.

Pratt is also pleased to welcome the Legends award presenters: Anderson will be introduced and presented with her award by author Salman Rushdie; Montoya will be introduced and presented with his award by Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief Margaret Russell; and Wegman will be introduced and presented with his award by President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art Agnes Gund.

“The Legends 2011 scholarship benefit will provide hundreds of talented students the opportunity to pursue and achieve a Pratt education,” says Pratt President Thomas F. Schutte. “It gives me great pleasure to welcome these icons of music, design, and art into Pratt's diverse community and to present them with the 2011 Legends awards at this year's scholarship benefit.”

Legends 2011 will be hosted by Schutte and Board of Trustees Chair Mike Pratt. Trustee James D. Kuhn and Pratt friend Marjorie Kuhn are serving as chairs of the event. Trustee Juliana Curran Terian and Two Trees Management Company are serving as vice chairs. This year's benefit committee is made up of co-chairs Kurt Andersen, Amy Cappellazzo, and Marjorie Kuhn; Kenneth P. Browne; Carol and Mike Pratt; Stan Richards; Robert and Hazel Siegel; and Jane and David Walentas.

“With more than 80 percent of students requiring financial assistance to attend Pratt, Legends is able to touch the lives of literally thousands of students,” says chair Marjorie Kuhn. “Pratt is a wonderful institution that graduates the talented individuals who will be shaping the future of art and design, architecture, and information science in the coming years. Through Legends, we are able to make a difference by helping the creative professionals of the future realize their dreams in today’s competitive world.”

Text: Kate Ünver
Photos: Tim Knox; Walter Briski, Jr.; Courtesy of William Wegman Studio

Fashion Department Moves into Newly Renovated Design Center Space

The Department of Fashion Design has moved into a stunning new space on the second floor of Pratt Studios in the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center.

The department’s move from North Hall to the Design Center brings all of the Institute’s design disciplines—industrial design, interior design, undergraduate communications design, and fashion design—together under one roof. Housing the design departments together was the original vision of trustee Juliana Curran Terian (B. Arch. '90), whose generous gift created the glass pavilion linking Pratt Studios and Steuben Hall.

Completely renovated over the summer, the new 18,000-square-foot space was turned into bright, airy studios and classrooms complete with state-of-the-art equipment, dedicated critique space, and more.

Click below to take a tour!

Text and Production: Abigail Beshkin
Video: Jonathan Weitz

Media Survey Finds Pratt's Brand Value on the Rise

Pratt ranks 11th in the nation for the quantity and quality of its coverage in global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere, and in social media outlets, according to the Global Language Monitor's (GLM) TrendTopper MediaBuzzTM 2012 Rankings.

The rankings, which measure the strength of an institution's brand equity across a variety of media, indicate that Pratt's brand value is steadily rising. Pratt's 11th ranking is up from 14th in 2010 and 28th in 2009, which reflects the positive things being said and written about Pratt by the media and non-media.   

The rankings also list Pratt as number one among the country's multidisciplinary colleges of art and design for its overall media presence.    

"The TrendTopper analysis is a way of seeing the schools through the eyes of the world at large and Pratt is an institution held in high regard globally," said Paul JJ Payack, founder of GLM's TrendTopper MediaBuzzTM Rankings. "Pratt is in the rather unique position of starting out with a high ranking, then improving on that with each new survey.  This combination is clearly a distinction enjoyed by only a few of the hundreds of schools that we survey." 

Pratt was the only college of art and design in the country out of the top 20 listed in the college category, and was ranked higher than any other college of art and design including School of the Art Institute of Chicago (22), Cooper Union (26), Rhode Island School of Design (32), School of Visual Arts (42), California Institute of the Arts (101), California College of Art (125), and Corcoran College of Art and Design (153). There were a total of 153 institutions of higher education included in the rankings. Universities are ranked separately.

"In the rapidly changing communications and media environment of the early 21st century, you cannot rely on television surveys, at-home interviews, newspaper clippings, or television mentions to measure the worth of a brand," write the report’s editors. "Today the methodology must encompass the Twitters and YouTubes of the world as well as the tens of millions of blogs, the billions of Web pages, as well as the top global print and electronic media."

You can read the full report or learn more here.  

Text: Amy Aronoff