- Diébédo Francis Kéré, Michelle Yeoh and Nile Rodgers named as 2024 Crystal Award recipients.
- Crystal Award celebrates the achievements of main artists who’re bridge-builders and function fashions for all leaders of society.
- Watch the award ceremony on 15 January at 18.00 CET. For extra data on the Annual Assembly 2024, go to www.weforum.org; share on social media utilizing #wef24.
Architect and educator Diébédo Francis Kéré, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Improvement Programme and Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh, and producer, guitarist, composer and humanitarian Nile Rodgers are the recipients of the thirtieth annual Crystal Award, the World Financial Discussion board introduced right now.
The winners can be honoured on the opening session of the Discussion board’s Annual Assembly 2024 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, on the night of Monday, 15 January. The award celebrates the achievements of main artists who’re bridge-builders and function fashions for all leaders of society.
The Crystal Award is introduced at Davos annually by Hilde Schwab, Chairwoman and Co-Founding father of the World Financial Discussion board’s World Arts Discussion board. The cultural leaders receiving the 2024 Crystal Award have been chosen for his or her capacity to attach us to one another, assist us replicate on the human situation and supply visions of the world that may lower by means of the restrictions of short-term or linear considering.
Diébédo Francis Kéré
Kéré receives the 2024 Crystal Award for his exemplary management in offering the Gando group with the means to create a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future by means of tasks that deal with training, well being and the atmosphere.
Kéré is a local of Burkina Faso and studied on the Technical College of Berlin. Parallel to his research, he established the Kéré Basis to help the growth of his residence village. In 2005, he opened the architectural workplace Kéré Structure. His architectural observe has obtained nationwide and worldwide recognition, together with the Pritzker Prize (2022), the Praemium Imperiale (2023) and the Aga Khan Award for Structure (2004), awarded for his first constructing, the Gando Major College in Burkina Faso.
Kéré has developed modern development methods that mix conventional constructing strategies and supplies with fashionable strategies. His use of native supplies, native data and native applied sciences creates holistic and sustainable design options. He’s presently engaged on the Benin Nationwide Meeting, the Goethe-Institut Senegal in Dakar and a mausoleum for Burkinabè revolutionary Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou. He has held professorships on the Harvard Graduate College of Design and the Swiss Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. Since 2017, he’s professor at TU Munich and Yale College (2019).
“I’ve witnessed the ability of structure as a software for social transformation, from laying the bricks for a faculty constructing in my native Gando, to designing a brand new nationwide parliament for Benin,” he stated. “No matter wealth, we should take heed to our environmental impression and attempt to carry consolation and a sustainable future to all.”
Michelle Yeoh
For over 4 many years, Yeoh has constructed an iconic profession that has made her one of the vital distinguished Asian actors in Hollywood. In 2023, she made historical past turning into the primary actor of Asian descent to win the Academy Award for Finest Actress. She has starred in over 60 movies, together with the James Bond Tomorrow By no means Dies; Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Memoirs of a Geisha; Sunshine; The Woman; Loopy Wealthy Asians; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; and sci-fi franchise TV sequence Star Trek: Discovery. By way of her work, she has challenged the normal views of Asian girls by creating robust feminine roles.
Appointed in 2016 as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Improvement Programme (UNDP) for the Sustainable Improvement Targets, Yeoh is dedicated to elevating consciousness and mobilizing help for the SDGs, sustainable trend and disaster-preparedness. As well as, she is a robust advocate for highway security and has just lately participated in a UN marketing campaign #StreetsForLife with JCDecaux to boost consciousness in response to the worldwide highway security disaster.
Yeoh has visited the Chengdu Analysis Base of Large Panda Breeding in China to assist launch the Pandas for the World Targets marketing campaign and has collaborated with Nationwide Geographic to provide the documentary, Among the many Nice Apes with Michelle Yeoh, whereas emphasizing the significance of accountable consumerism and moral enterprise practices. Her appointment as a member of the Worldwide Olympic Committee in October 2023 has given her the ability to advertise world understanding and goodwill by means of sports activities.
“Our true id as human beings lies not in our variations however in our collective capacity to embrace and embrace each particular person, no matter their background or beliefs,” she stated. “It’s by means of this acceptance and unity that we uncover the essence of our shared humanity.”
Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers receives the 2024 Crystal Award for his extraordinary efforts to make the world a extra peaceable, equal and inclusive place by means of his music, his exemplary dedication to preventing systemic racism, inequality and injustice, and by championing modern youth voices to decision-making tables.
Rodgers is a Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame and Songwriters Corridor of Fame inductee, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner, Apple Music Producer-in-Residence, Songwriters Corridor of Fame Chairman, and Hipgnosis Songs Co-Founder. With CHIC, Rodgers pioneered a musical language with hits like “LeFreak” and sparked hip-hop with “Good Occasions” and “Rapper’s Delight”. His work in The CHIC Group – together with Sister Sledge (“We Are Household”) Diana Ross (“I’m Coming Out”), David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”) and Madonna (“Like a Virgin”) – has led to gross sales of 500+ million albums, whereas his Grammy Award-winning collaborations with Daft Punk (“Random Entry Recollections”) and Beyoncé (“Renaissance”) are on the vanguard of up to date hits.
Rodgers’s activism started as a teen Black Panther in New York. He participated in Reside Help in 1985 and the Live performance for Ukraine in 2023. After 9/11, he co-founded the We Are Household Basis, selling cultural range whereas empowering younger folks to vary the world.
“My dad and mom socialized me to care about folks and provides to others although we have been ourselves financially poor,” he stated. “When music gave me the chance to succeed in hearts the world over, I spotted I’d been given a priceless present. After I give that present to others, I get again greater than the wealthiest particular person on earth.”
