As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, the next chapter of MOBO will introduce its inaugural MOBO ‘Rise With Us’ Fellowships. These will underpin MOBO Season, a period of groundbreaking cultural and educational events under the banner of ‘Rise With Us’. MOBO Season is all about creating platforms for diverse talent and the fellowships will create opportunities across the arts for exceptional individuals from diverse backgrounds that wouldn’t ordinarily have them within their grasp. Through working with their partners, MOBO is able to offer diverse talent a very practical and real opportunity to further their skills and ambition.
The Fellowships initiative partners includeITV, Warehouse, The London Theatre Consortium, Lida, OMD UK, PRS for Music, The Tate, Saatchi & Saatchi, London College of Fashion, Arena Mediaand AMV BBDO. Each partner has joined MOBO in its vision to create opportunities and to target fellows that are on the cusp, having already started out in their respective industry, and just require that additional step up through the Fellowships. This enables MOBO to cultivate partnerships that not only create opportunities, but also support its fellows through bespoke educational programmes, helping to develop the next generation.
There are twenty-seven Fellowship opportunities ranging from fashion to music and art to advertising, all of which seek to ensure that individuals from diverse backgrounds lead change from the top, so that diversity can begin to filter through these industries.
Within fashion, one of the MOBO Fellowships includes The Designers’ Fellowship, created by Warehouseto generate the practical opportunity for three emerging designers to have their own pop-up trading point in its flagship store on Oxford Street for a day. They will also be honoured with a VIP networking reception where they will meet journalists, stylists and leaders within the fashion industry, and take part in a yearlong programme of mentoring, workshops and time with key departments to develop the skills they already have.
The London Theatre Consortiumis also creating opportunities through theirExecutive Fellowship.Up to four fellowships will be created for 6-12 months from October 2015, with the aim to identify highly skilled theatre producing, administration and management talent. This will create diversity from within the leadership team of major London theatres, to mentor and support mid-career thinking, and provide pathways for leadership for emerging producing and management talent.
The marketing world have embraced this opportunity with Saatchi & Saatchi, AMV BBDO, Lida, OMD UK and Arena all creating fellowship roles within their creative, client-facing or design departments,
Also among the twenty-seven Fellowships is the role being created by ITV, which will give an apprentice the opportunity to work within the largest commercial family of channels in the UK.
Kanya King,MBE, CEO and founder of the MOBO organisation said; “We’re thrilled to introduce the first MOBO Fellowships scheme and look forward to the positive changes and results they will bring about. The reason we developed the Fellowships is to create opportunities for future generations of exceptional talent that are already on the cusp of success, but need a bit of a step into their industry. We’re also very proud to have the support of so many fantastic organisations such as Warehouse, ITV and Saatchi & Saatchi, among many others."
TheMOBO ‘Rise With Us’ Season is jam-packed with an incredible range of events all handpicked by MOBO from across the creative industries of film, theatre, fashion and art. From a ‘Late at Tate’ event, to the homegrown critically acclaimed cast of ‘The Etienne Sisters’ at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and the exploration of the golden era of sound systems at the exhibition ‘Rockers, Soulheads & Lovers: Sound Systems Back in Da Day’, at the new Art Exchange in Nottingham, MOBO has curated a programme of the highest quality.