Women Groundbreakers
x Jane Goodall Institute Austria
7 May – 10 May 2026
x Jane Goodall Institute Austria
7 May – 10 May 2026
A five-day art exhibition in the heart of Vienna, focused on inspiring future generations with female role models from the arts, sciences and humanities, featuring talks from the Jane Goodall Institute, cultural events, and business networking opportunities. Celebrating the life of Jane Goodall and other female groundbreakers.
6 – 9 pm Vernissage Gala with Jane Goodall Institute
A truly special evening with Jane Goodall Institute ambassadors, inspiring people and a special tribute to the one and only Jane Goodall, with proceeds from sold artworks going towards Jane Goodall Institute's Clever Girls project in Uganda. Given the right opportunities, girls can break the cycle of poverty in just one generation! We invite you to be a part of this journey with us, meet incredible people, learn about female role models and have an evening of truly meaningful conversations.
Invitees: Jane Goodall Institute network, British Embassy, UN Women, UN, Austrian politicians & diplomats; IMP, Research Institutes, Oxbridge & LSE network, Austrian Startups, Mompreneurs.
9 am – 12 pm Roots & Shoots by Jane Goodall Institute
A special educational workshop designed for adults and children to learn about Jane Goodall's work and how they can make a change in the world. The Roots & Shoots programme empowers young people worldwide to protect people, animals, and the environment by creating local projects — connecting over 10,000 groups in 60+ countries shaping a better future together.
3 – 5 pm Children drawing session amongst Women Groundbreakers
7 pm Inspiring women networking event
12 – 2 pm Parents with kids open workshops — “Meet and greet a scientist”
3 – 5 pm Mother’s Day special: children and mothers drawing session — drawing the mum, bonding, learning about female role models
8 pm Gig celebrating female songwriters
12 – 2 pm Parents with kids open workshops — “Meet and greet a scientist”
3 – 5 pm Mother’s Day special: children and mothers drawing session — drawing the mum
5 – 7 pm Adult drawing session, followed by networking
7:30 pm Salsa night — all proceeds go to charity, dance for love
The sense of self is a fluid concept, we are what we consume and what we choose to be. After 30 I realised I didn't have any female role models and all my influences were created by men – from literature to sciences and the arts. This collection is a personal journey of discovery and empowerment.
This body of work examines how innovation, authorship, and contribution are perceived and recorded in relation to women's work. It reflects on the norms through which value is assigned, histories are constructed, and certain forms of achievement become visible while others remain marginal.
The event is about inspiring future generations with this idea and re-examining our role models later in life.
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE was the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace and world-renowned primatologist, conservationist and humanist. She was known worldwide for her 65 years of research on wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. In the second half of her life she dedicated herself to a broader field and became a global advocate for a variety of animal and environmental conservation projects.
In keeping with the spirit of their founder, the institute continues its work to ensure the survival of the last chimpanzees and to create a healthy environment where people, animals, and nature can live together peacefully.
Anya Vero explores the blurred lines between art and anthropology, with a signature style of oil on silk stretched over asymmetrical canvases that play with explicit non-conformity.
Russian-Ukrainian by descent, born and raised in Latvia, she holds an MFA in Fine Art from Oxford University and Masters in Anthropology from SOAS and the London School of Economics.
Her past exhibitions and features include: the Self Impressions Tate Exchange event at Tate Modern, London; Art For Freedom in London in partnership with international anti-slavery charity A21 and Mexican charities SINTRATA and the Comisión Unidos Contra la Trata, working with survivors of human trafficking; group show Rite Of Spring at MuseumLV in Riga; Women Groundbreakers with the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna; and, most recently, Searching For Home: a series of large scale paintings exploring identity and belonging, exhibited in the ex-RAF Neatishead nuclear bunker in Norfolk, England and featured on national news.
