Pratt Institute will honor the milestone 20th anniversary of the Marc Rosen Scholarship Fund for Graduate Packaging Design on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at its annual Art of Packaging Award Ceremony at the University Club on Fifth Avenue at 54th Street. The annual black-tie fundraiser, which includes a 6:30 p.m. cocktail reception and 8 p.m. dinner, has raised more than $1.5 million over the past 20 years for Pratt Institute design students.

The Marc Rosen Scholarship is the only scholarship in the world available to college students looking to pursue careers in cosmetics and packaging design. Each year the scholarship is supported by the cosmetic industry at The Art of Packaging Award Ceremony, an event that attracts the top-tier of New York City’s multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry. At Pratt, Rosen teaches the only college course offered in the world on cosmetic and fragrance packaging design.

An additional highlight of the evening is the Art of Packaging Award, which is presented each year to a fragrance company that has excelled in the art form. Past recipients include Dior Beauty, Clinique, Procter and Gamble Beauty, Bath & Body Works, Estée Lauder, Coty Inc., Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Calvin Klein, Lancôme, and Avon.

To celebrate this special anniversary in 2009, Rosen plans to bring together the CEOs of all past corporate honorees and all of his scholarship recipients from the last 20 years in order to honor their collective contributions to this important industry in New York City and the world.

“Pratt is grateful to Marc Rosen for his longtime support and dedication in establishing his scholarship fund,” said Pratt Institute Provost Peter Barna. “He has helped hundreds of students over the last 20 years to realize their passion for packaging design and to become leaders in their field.”

The Pratt program in which Rosen teaches—Communications and Packaging Design— is ranked as one of the top 10 graphic design programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

Rosen’s unique packaging design course has attracted over 300 national and international students to Pratt from such countries as Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Uruguay, as well as from across the United States.

Scholarship funds have been awarded to approximately 100 of these students, many of whom have gone on to become creative directors and executives of companies and branding agencies worldwide, including Siegel+Gale, Landor & Associates, Ogilvy & Mather, Gensler, Women’s Wear Daily, and Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. They have also worked for such esteemed clients as L’Oréal, NARS Cosmetics, Juicy Couture, Swarovski Crystal, Bourjois Paris Cosmetics, Shiseido, UBS, Public Art Fund, PBS, and Samsung; and have been recognized with FiFi, One Club, Bond No. 9 Fragrance, and Society for Environmental Graphic Design awards.

More info: www.pratt.edu