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.
2024
Claudia Larcher
"AI AND THE ART OF HISTORICAL REINTERPRETATION: JAPAN"
2023
Elsa Okazaki
"INTO THE WILD"
2022
Martha Schnuderl
“DO YOU SEE ME NOW"
The winner will be awarded with a prize money of €6,000.-, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after announcement of the winner in spring 2025.
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:
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.
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 2025. Collaborations with other relevant institutions and events are encouraged.
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 2023. 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.
To be announced shortly.
The Austrian Cultural Forum (ACF) Tokyo is part of Austria’s international cultural network committed to shaping an active international cultural policy as defined in the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s International Cultural Policy Concept.
The ACF Tokyo acts as a platform for artists from Austria in Japan and supports initiatives to present a unique image of a contemporary, innovative and creative Austria. The ACF Tokyo is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Born in Vienna in 1923, Beate Sirota Gordon spent her childhood in Tokyo as the daughter of famed pianist and music professor Leo Sirota and his wife Augustine.
After completing her college degree in California, Beate Sirota Gordon traveled back to Japan in 1945 as a translation expert for the U.S. military, where, aged just 22, she was invited to be part of General Douglas MacArthur’s secret mission to help draft the new Japanese constitution after World War II.
After completing her college degree in California, Beate Sirota Gordon traveled back to Japan in 1945 as a translation expert for the U.S. military, where, aged just 22, she was invited to be part of General Douglas MacArthur’s secret mission to help draft the new Japanese constitution after World War II.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after the award ceremony in spring 2023.
Her legacy was enshrined as one of the authors of Articles 14 and 24, which provided unprecedented rights to women in marriage, divorce, property, and inheritance, laying the foundation for further women’s rights movements and making Ms. Sirota Gordon a feminist heroine in modern-day Japan.
The prize money is a lump sum and includes all fees, material, production, travel and accommodation costs associated with the proposed project. The prize money will be paid out in two installments after the award ceremony in spring 2023.
Beate Sirota Gordon later joined the Japan Society and Asia Society in New York City, where she supported the careers of many emerging, and often female artists from Asia over the following decades. Articles 14 and 24 of the Japanese constitution, which Ms. Sirota Gordon helped draft, are still in force today.
In the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Manga “From Vienna To Tokyo” embarks on a journey alongside Beate, to experience the heroic story of a girl born into a Jewish family in Vienna, finding her new home in Japan, before losing contact to her parents during World War II and eventually becoming one of Japan’s most celebrated feminist heroines.
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Director: Arno Mitterdorfer
Assistant: Akiko Soga
Logo Design:Ginko Yang
Website Design:Namuun Davaadorj
Archival photographs courtesy of:
The American School in Japan
Women’s Archives Center,
National Women’s Education Center of Japan
Beate Sirota Gordon Photo Gallery (online),
with permission from the Gordon family
© 2024 Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo
