The Ronnie Prize

The RONNIE Prize is awarded to the first place winner in our Japanese Traditional Craft Revitalization Contests, and consists of 5 million yen ($50,000) in project funding for the winning project aiming to revitalize a craft for the 21^st Century. The name of the prize was chosen to honor the memory of Ron Beimel, a young man who had a great passion for life and the Japanese culture and pursued his dreams with extraordinary focus, making extraordinary accomplishments during his short lifetime. We hope that the memory of this young man will inspire our contest winner to reach high and to attain their goals.

The 1st place Ronnie Prize winner receives both ¥5,000,000 ($50,000) of targeted funding toward achieving his/her vision as well as the active support of a mentor group of experts in fields such as business, design, product development, and marketing. The ten finalists become members of our Craft Leaders Council, a dynamic group of crafts people whom we support with marketing, net-working and assistance in building peer support.