The Beate Sirota Gordon Award recognizes the accomplishments of an Austrian or Austria-based artist in the field of gender equality and women’s rights, by granting financial support for the implementation of a new artistic or cultural project in Japan, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo.
Given out yearly on International Women’s Day (March 8), the Award focuses on supporting the work of young and emerging artists who explore the role of women, gender equality, and gender expressions in the context of the 21st century. The winning submission is to be presented in Japan in the same year.
This award was launched in honor of Austrian-born Beate Sirota Gordon (1923-2012), who helped draft Articles 14 and 24 of the Japanese constitution after World War II. The articles gave women unprecedented rights in marriage, family, and society. Sirota Gordon’s legacy as an advocate for women and emerging artists is remembered to this day in Japan, where she is celebrated as a heroine of the modern Japanese feminist movement.
The Beate Sirota Gordon Award enables the creation of a new artistic or cultural project in Japan that explores one or several of the following themes:
We encourage projects that give new outlooks and perspectives on the above topics and can engage Japanese and international audiences. After completion of the project, a presentation, exhibition, screening, or similar will be held at the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo in 2024. Collaborations with other relevant institutions and events are encouraged.
The proposed project needs to have a clear connection to Japan, and can be in any artistic medium including, but not limited to, the following fields: art, design, architecture, film, photography, music, literature, performance, installations, hybrid media.
