The Best Awards for Disabled Artists 

The Ku Sang Sotdae Literature Award and the Lee Won Award

The two awards operated by the Korea Disabled Artist Association are the Ku Sang Sotdae Literature Award in the field of literature and the Lee Won Award in the field of art. Each year, a poet and a painter are selected.

As the competition rate gets continuously higher, they have been settled down as authoritative awards.

Those two awards are operated by influential older artists’ donation of prize money, instead of the government budget, so they are selected only for artistry without any external influence, which is a great strength. 

The Ku Sang Sotdae Literature Award

After establishing and operating the Sotdae Literature Award together with the publication of 『Sotdae Literature』 in 1991, an elder poet, the late Ku Sang donated 200 million won as development  funds of Sotdae Literature Award.

Since changing the name of Sotdae Literature Award to ‘Ku Sang Sotdae Literature Award’ in 2005, it has selected the prize winner through public contest each year, and then presented a plaque and prize money(3 million won).

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, a collection of poems under the subtitle ‘Asking about life to Sotdae poets’ was published in 2021 by collecting prize-winning works for last 30 years.

Ku Sang was always together with Sotdae poets from the moment of publishing 『Sotdae Literature』 in 1990 to the moment of passing away in 2004.

Ku Sang cherished disabled writers a lot enough to attend the Sotdae Literature Award Ceremony which was a feast for disabled writers every year.

When Ku Sang donated 200 million won earned by selling his books in his study as prize funds of Sotdae Literature, he revealed the purpose of donation by saying ‘The literature award for the disabled should have lots of prize money’.

Poet Ku Sang who was born in Seoul of 1919, moved to Waegwan of Chilgok, Gyeongbuk.
While residing there for about 20 years, he worked as a newspaper journalist and also immersed himself in writing poems.

Despite of prison life due to a serious slip of the pen in the turbulent time, he did not compromise his principles.

He is a true teacher of our generation who trained younger students in college and also devoted himself for disabled writers working in the poorest condition, without getting involved in real politics.

The Lee Won Award

The Lee Won Award established in 2018 by sculptor Lee Won who was residing in Canada, for vitalizing creative activities of disabled artists in Korea, has the meaning in which a worldclass senior sculptor supports junior artists.

The Lee Won Award selects the prize-winner through public contest every year, and then presents a plaque and prize money(2 million won).

Artist Lee Won who was born in 1946, got a severe disability called polio when he was three.

Even though he applied for a college of medicine to achieve his dream as a doctor, his admission was rejected because he was a person with disability.

After moving to the United States, he graduated with top honors from Pepperdine University in 1976, and then started taking the path as an artist by holding a solo exhibition in Los Angeles Central Museum of Art.

Lee Won who felt limited to have a family as an artist, moved to Canada, and became a certified public accountant. After his livelihood got stabilized, he started active work activities to achieve his dream as an artist.

In the middle of supporting people who had a dream of becoming artists in Korea and all over the world, Lee Won was diagnosed with stomach cancer, struggled against the disease, and then passed away in 2021.

The deceased who did not forget his identity as a Korean, was buried in Bundang Memorial Park of Korea in 2023. Around ten works by Lee Won including a bronze statue <(Difference and  Repetition> have been installed.

Including the sculpture for the 50th anniversary of the independence of Congo in Africa, Lee Won’s works can be seen in many countries such as Canada, USA, UK, Singapore, Vietnam, and China.