Godrej India Culture Lab launches 2nd season of Leadership Programme

Lab Head, Parmesh Shahani, engageing students in an interactive session pertaining to the Lab and the Programme - Photo By GPN

Mumbai, July 18, 2018 (GPN) : The Godrej India Culture Lab launched the second season of its one-of-its-kind Leadership Programme, an intense month-long internship for humanities students to give them a deep dive into Mumbai’s cultural industry and inculcate within them skills to become future cultural change makers.

The team hosted their first session at Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, on July 17 where Lab Head, Parmesh Shahani, engaged students in an interactive session pertaining to the Lab and the Programme.

In the next six weeks, the Lab team will be visiting colleges across the city to deliver talks and open call for applications for the programme. They will visit the School of Environment and Architecture, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, St. Xavier’s College, Rachana Sansad, Sir JJ School of Arts and IDC-IIT Bombay.

To apply for the programme, they must answer the following question: ‘WHAT IS YOUR IDEA FOR ORGANIZING ONE CULTURAL EVENT IN MUMBAI? Tell them the idea, why it is needed and how you think the event will be.’ The students have a fortnight after the talk to come back to the team with answers and remain free to use any medium (poetry, film, essays, stop-motion graphics, etc). The programme includes masterclasses from cultural experts, visits to various cultural spaces in the city and co-curating a world-class event with the Lab.

September onwards, the applicants will go through a rigorous whetting process after which five students will be part of the Godrej India Culture Lab Leadership Programme batch of 2018-19, who will begin their internship at the Lab in May 2019.

Godrej India Culture Lab, Head, Parmesh Shahani says, “We had an incredible first batch of the Godrej India Culture Lab Leadership Programme where seven students were given a life changing one-month internship at our Culture Lab. This year, the competition is going to be fiercer since we have added the number of colleges we are speaking at. The aim is to find the brightest minds from the best Humanities schools in Mumbai and I am excited to see their applications.”

In the first season, the students undergoing internship curated an event called ‘Urdu Culture Now’, an exploration of the different expressions of Urdu in contemporary India at the lab.ENDS

About India Culture Lab:

The Godrej India Culture Lab is a fluid experimental space that cross-pollinates ideas and people to explore what it means to be modern and Indian. India Culture Lab is based in Vikhroli, Mumbai, at the Godrej headquarters. The Lab was launched in January 2011 as an attempt to create an alternative intellectual hub in Mumbai city that would serve as a catalyst for conversations about contemporary India, by brokering interactions between academia, the creative industries, the corporate world and the not-for-profit sector. Founded by Parmesh Shahani, the Lab curates and organize events of different sizes, most of which are held within the Godrej campus in Vikhroli and are free and open to attend for all – Godrej employees as well as members of the general public.  It also organize larger one-off special events, like conferences, lectures and spectacles such as the Pop Up Museum of Memories.ENDS

About the Author

Sachin Murdeshwar
Sachin Murdeshwar is a Sr.Journalist and Columnist in several Mainline Newspapers and Portals.He is an ardent traveller and likes to explore destinations to the core.