The archive · Marketing & Growth · Product decision · 2024–2026
HERALBONY pays disabled artists like professionals — prize, contracts, corporate sponsors
HERALBONY launches an art prize where artists with disabilities win cash, contracts and licensing deals — it took ACC 2025's Creative Innovation Grand Prix.
HERALBONY Co., Ltd.
What it had to solve
HERALBONY is a Morioka-based creative company that licenses 2,000+ artworks by artists with intellectual disabilities onto fashion and other products, paying royalties on every use. To change the perception that such art is 'craft' or charity, it needed a professional platform that would give artists careers.
How it works
HERALBONY is a Japanese creative company that works with artists with intellectual disabilities under the mission 'Radiate Your Color.' It manages the copyrights of more than 2,000 artworks and puts them on fashion and other products, paying artists royalties whenever their art is used.
In January 2024 the company launched the HERALBONY Art Prize, an international award open to artists with disabilities from anywhere, regardless of professional status, age or nationality. The 2025 edition, presented by Tokyo Tatemono | Brillia, drew 2,650 entries; the Grand Prize went to French artist Evelyne Postic's 'La Reine Charlotte,' who received ¥3 million in cash and an artist contract with HERALBONY for global licensing.
Beyond the Grand Prize, four Jury Prizes were chosen by curators and gallery directors — including Katsuhiko Hibino, president of Tokyo University of the Arts — and five Corporate Prizes were awarded by sponsors such as Toyota, JR East and JINS, whose businesses are expected to incorporate the winning artworks into products and services.
The initiative won the Grand Prix (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award) in the Creative Innovation category at the 2025 ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, selected from 2,263 entries, and cumulative submissions have reached 7,566 from 94 countries — evidence that the platform is redefining what 'disability and art' means.
Why it lands
- It builds the standard institutions of a professional art world — prize, juries, sponsors, contracts — instead of asking for charity
- Winners get cash AND a licensing contract, so the prize creates recurring income and careers, not one-off recognition
- Corporate sponsors integrate the art into real products, exposing the work to audiences far beyond galleries
- Open entry regardless of professional status floods the field with new talent and redefines the category
- It converts a company's mission into a flagship cultural product, earning a second ACC Grand Prix and global reach
What it did
Cumulative submissions reached 7,566 from 94 countries; the prize won the 2025 ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS Grand Prix (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award) in Creative Innovation out of 2,263 entries — HERALBONY's second ACC Grand Prix after its 2023 PR win.
What you can take
To change how a marginalized group is valued, don't ask for sympathy — build the institutions professionals have: prizes, juries, sponsors and contracts. Structure creates careers.
Since then
After the ACC 2025 Grand Prix, the prize kept scaling: the 2026 edition ran again with corporate sponsors, and the winners' exhibition has traveled from Tokyo to Iwate and Paris, where HERALBONY's European subsidiary (launched September 2024) extends the artist network. HERALBONY continues to sign artists and license their work, and paying royalties on every use remains the core of its pitch: talent, not sympathy.
Sources
- "HERALBONY Art Prize" won the Grand Prix in the Creative Innovation category at the "ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS."
- HERALBONY Art Prize 2025 winners announced: French artist Evelyne Postic wins the Grand Prize
- [Breaking News] HERALBONY has won the Grand Prix at ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS 2025
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