GLOBART Award

For years GLOBART has awarded people who set examples and carry hope for society and the next generation. Role models always have been and still are essential at all times. They excite, are leaders, shape our cultural heritage. The GLOBART AWARD is supposed to motivate people to go their own authentic way. At the same time the award is expressing gratitude and appreciation for artistic, social and political commitment. Former award winners include Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Hans Küng, Václav Havel, Ernesto Cardenal, Riccardo Muti, Freda Meissner-Blau, José Antonio Abreu, Tino Sehgal, Michael Haneke, Jeffrey Sachs and Marina Abramovic.

The award was designed by Josef Kaiser, who worked with artist Adolf Frohner. The figure’s simplicity acts as a symbol for spirituality, creativity and social awareness.

GLOBART AWARD PreisträgerInnen

2019 – Carola Rackete

Following Marina Abramovic 2018, this year another woman was honoured with the GLOBART Award: Carola Rackete. With this award, GLOBART honoured a courageous young woman whose actions have become a role model for thousands of people worldwide. As a captain, she has saved lives in the Mediterranean, she is calling for an EU regulation on sea rescue and is raising her voice for climate protection. Carola Rackete (born 1988) gained international recognition as captain of Sea-Watch 3 when she provided disaster and humanitarian aid in the Mediterranean Sea in 2019. Rackete studied nautical science at the Jade Hochschule in Elsfleth, Germany (2007-2011) and conservation management at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England (2015-2018). From August 2011 to October 2013 nautical officer for the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and on cruise ships for Greenpeace (March 2015 – September 2015) and British Antarctic Survey (January 2016 – April 2017). In 2018 Rackete worked for three months as a nature guide in the High Arctic, where she taught on nature conservation and the effects of ecological change. In addition, Rackete has been involved as a volunteer for Sea-Watch e.V. since 2016, in the European Voluntary Service Programme at the UN Heritage Park Volcanoes Kamchatka, Russia and as an animal welfare activist for LPO France. Since 2018 Rackete travels through China, post-Soviet and polar regions, where she independently conducts a social-ecological study on nature conservation. Her current goal is to explore the future of nature and environmental protection in different cultures and continents.

2018 – Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović, the most important performance artist of the present, has radically changed the art world. She touched millions of people with the power of her silence. In the domed hall of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna she was awarded the Globart Award in 2018. Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade in the early 1970s Marina Abramović has been a pioneer of Performance Art and has created some of the most important early works. The body has always been both – her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has endured pain, exhaustion and danger in her search for emotional and spiritual transformation. In 2010 Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and at the same time her 700 hour performance “The Artist is Present” took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2014 she completed the three-month performance “512 Hours” at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Abramović founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a platform for immaterial and long-term work for new possibilities of collaboration between thinkers from all fields. In 2016, the Institute’s (to date) most complete form of collaboration with NEON was housed in “As One”, Benaki Museum, Athens. Her most recent publication, “Walk Through Walls”: Memories, published by Crown Archetype on October 25, 2016. Her retrospective, “The Cleaner”, was first shown at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm in February 2017 and has toured to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

2017 – Jeffrey Sachs

Born 1954 in Detroit. Since 2002 he is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author – The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011) and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. Alongside numerous awards and prizes he has twice been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and the New York Times called him, “probably the most important economist in the world”. Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty. Sachs is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised on both the Sustainable Development Goals and Millennium Development Goals. Sachs is currently Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development.

2016 – Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke was born in 1942 in Munich. He grew up in Vienna with his parents, who were working in the film industry, and after graduating school, he decided to study philosophy, psychology and theatre studies. After dropping out of university he went to Baden-Baden in 1967, to work as a dramatic adviser in television. 1989 his first cinema movie was released under the name “The Seventh Continent”. International success came with “La Pianiste” in 2000, which is based on the works of Elfriede Jelinek. This masterpiece was followed by more of its kind, such as “the White Ribbon” and “Amour”, the latter even receiving an Academy Award.

2015 – Tino Sehgal

Born 1976 in London. Artist. Lives and works in Berlin. Studied political economy and dance at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. 2013 Leone d’oro, 55th Biennale di Venezia. Solo exhibitions (selection): A Year at the Stedelijk: Tino Sehgal, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; The Unilever Series – Tino Sehgal, Tate Modern, Turbine Hall, London; Tino Sehgal, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York. Group exhibitions (selection): Turner Prize 2013, Ebrington; The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Biennale di Venezia, Venedig; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel. Sehgal is working on a radical redefinition of art by constructing situations rather than objects. Consequently, throughout his works he explores social processes, cultural conventions and the allocation of roles, thereby not only redefining art production but also reconsidering fundamental values of our social system, including sustainability, originality and ownership.

2012 – John Hunter

A native Virginian and graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, John Hunter is an award-winning gifted teacher and educational consultant who has dedicated his life to helping children realize their full potential. Employing his background as a composer and filmmaker during a three-decade career as a teacher. 2012 GLOBART AWARD Winner and 2011 TED-Talk “Teaching with the World Peace Game”.

2009 – Ernesto Cardenal

Nicaraguan suspended catholic priest, socialist politician and poet. Studied Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Mexico. Until 1949 at the Columbia University in New York (USA). Studied Theology in Mexico and Columbia. Prominent representative of the liberation theology. From 1979 until 1987 Minister of Culture of Nicaragua. 1988 founder (together with Dietmar Schönherr) of the international cultural and development project “Casa de los tres mundos” in Granada (Nicaragua). Was awarded in 2009 with the GLOBART Award.

2007 – Riccardo Muti

One of the leading conductors of our time. Studied at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples (Italy) and at the Verdi Conservatory in Milano (Italy). Since 1971 guest at the “Salzburger Festspiele”. Music director of La Scala in Milano (Italy), the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Rome Opera. In 2007 he was awarded with the GLOBART Award for his artistic work and sociopolitical commitment to the concert series “Le Vie dell’Amicizia”.

2006 – José Antonio Abreu

Venezuelan composer, economist, politician, educator, activist. Founder of the greatest musical project in Venezuela “Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar”. Was awarded in 2006 with the GLOBART Award.

2005 – Freda Meissner-Blau

Freda Meissner-Blau, journalist and co-founder of the Green Party, received the GLOBART Award in 2005 for her work to protect the environment and her courageous public commitment to human rights, human dignity, justice and peace. Laudator Christine von Weizsäcker: “You are praised for your early, clear vision and your clear words.”

2005 – Franz Küberl

Longtime president of “Caritas Austria” (1995-2013). Member of the “ORF-Publikumsrat” and of the “ORF-Stiftungsrat”, benefactor of the “Katholische Medien Verein Privatstiftung”.

2004 – Dom Erwin Kräutler

Roman Catholic priest, missionary. From 1981 till 2015 bishop and prelate of Xingu, the largest diocese in Brazil. Was awarded in 2010 with the Alternative Nobel Prize for his commitment to the human rights of indigenous people and the conservation of the tropical rainforest in the Amazon region and in 2004 with the GLOBART Award.

2003 – Václav Havel

Czech dramatic adviser, essayist, human rights activist and politician. From 1989 until 1992 last president of Czechoslovakia, from 1993 until 2003 first head of state of the Czech Republic. Member of the writers community “Obec spisovatelů” and honorary member of the “Club of Rome”. Was awarded in 2003 with the GLOBART Award.

2000 – Hans Küng

Swiss theologian, Roman Catholic priest, author. From 1960 until 1996 professor of theology, at last for ecumenical theology at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen (Germany). Until March 2013 president of the co-founded foundation “Weltethos”. Was awarded in 2000 with the GLOBART Award.

2000 – Fariborz Sahba

Fariborz Sahba is an iranian-canadian architect follower of the Bahai-religion. He drafted the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb and the visitor center in the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, the Bahá’í House of Worship which is known as Lotus Temple as well as the iranian embassy in Peking, People’s Republic of China. He studied architecture at the University of Teheran till 1972. After the islamic revolution of 1979 the persecution of the Bahai intensified and he had to leave his home country. He moved to Canada where he is still living.

1998 – Lord Yehudi Menuhin

Lord Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City in 1916. He grew up in San Francisco. With four years of age he got his first violin lesson, thought by Louis Persinger. Already 1925 he was giving his first solo concert, 1926 more where following in New York. His career as concerto violin player brought him than, all around the world. He was one of the greatest violin virtuosos of the 20th century. Lord Yehudi Menuhin died 1999 in Berlin.

GLOBART INNOVATION AWARD PreisträgerInnen

2005 – Katalin Zanin

“Ich bin OK” – Studied Psychology and Theatre Studies at the University of Vienna (Austria) as well as a cultural management course. 1979 founder of the association “Ich bin O.K.”, from 1990 until 1995 CEO of “Aktion Mensch” for the Industrialist’s Association. Head of the cultural and educational association “Ich bin O.K.”, now its integration ambassador and honorary president. Was awarded in 2005 for her project “Ich bin O.K.” with the GLOBART Innovation Award.

2004 – Timna Brauer & Elias Meiri

“Voices for Peace” – Born in Vienna, Timna Brauer spends her first years of life in paris. Matura at the Vienna Lycée Francais, guitar, piano and vocal training (Vienna Konservatorium). Afterwards she studied musicology at the Paris Sorbonne University and took masterclasses in classic. Afterwards she became successful in her music career. Together with the israel Jazz-pianist Elias Meiri, Timna Brauer founded an Ensemble in 1985, which is giving international concerts till today. Elias Meiri is born in Israel and playing since he is five years of age piano. Supported by his perfect pitch he started very early to be a great improviser. He visited the music high school Talma Yalin in Tel-Aviv and finished his college degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston. For a few years he is playing with known Jazz musicians like Dizzie Gillespie, Dave Liebmann and Steve Großmann in New York, before he settles down in Europe in 1988.

2001 – Wilhelm Barthlott

With Wilhelm Barthlott, one of the most important biodiversity researchers and bionics experts, was awarded the GLOBART Innovation Prize for his scientific work. His development of the lotus effect led to a paradigm shift in broad areas of materials science and enabled the development of superhydrophobic biomimetic surfaces.

2001 – Shamil Fattakhov

“Promoting Positive Messages Through The Media” – Russian director Shamil Fattakhov was awarded the GLOBART Innovation Award for his theatre project “Stop & Act” – a new way of resolving conflicts.